Broadcast Music, Inc. and BMI Foundation have named ten young classical composers as winners of the annual BMI Student Composer Awards for composers ages 17 to 27. The composers are Christopher Chandler (27); Juan Pablo Contreras (age 25); Stefan Cwik (26); William Dougherty (25); Michael-Thomas Foumai (25); Michael Gilbertson (25); Kurt Isaacson (26); Michael Parsons (17); Chris Rogerson (24); and Michael Schachter (25). The winners, whose scores were chosen from more than 400 manuscripts submitted to the competition, each receive $20,000 scholarship grants to be applied toward their musical education. At the awards ceremony on May 20 at the Essex House Hotel in New York City, Contreras—from Guadalajara, Mexico—was named winner of the William Schuman Prize, awarded to the score judged “most outstanding” in the competition. The Carlos Surinach Prize, awarded to the youngest winner in the competition, went to Michael Parsons, a student at the Juilliard School Pre-College Division. Composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich chaired the competition, with jurors Margaret Brouwer, Richard Danielpour, Mario Davidovsky, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez; preliminary judges were Alexandra Du Bois, Shafer Mahoney, David Schober, and Sean Shepherd.
Posted June 6, 2013
