“It’s been only a month since the announcement of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music for which all three finalists were women,” writes Frank Oteri in Tuesday’s (5/16) New Music Box. “Today, the BMI Foundation (BMIF), in collaboration with Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), has also made history with their announcement of the nine young classical composers, ages 14 to 28, who have been named winners of the 65th annual BMI Student Composer Awards. For the first time in the awards’ 65 year history, a majority of the winners (5 of the 9) are female composers.” The winners—Katherine Balch, Aiyana Tedi Braun, Aaron Cecchini-Butler, Daniel James Miller, Lara Poe, Matthew Schultheis, Annika K. Socolofsky, Sydney Wang, and Justin Zeitlinger—received their awards at a private ceremony on May 16. “The BMI Student Composer Awards recognize superior musical compositional ability with annual educational scholarships totaling $20,000…. The adjudication process for the BMI Student Composer Awards involves two separate panels … of BMI-affiliated composers. Alexandra du Bois, Jeremy Gill, Shawn Jaeger, and David Schober served as the preliminary panelists.… Steven Mackey, Cindy McTee, James Primosch, and Roger Reynolds served on the final jury. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich is the permanent Chair of the competition.”
Posted May 18, 2017
Pictured: Winners of this year’s BMI Student Composers Awards. Top row (left to right): Lara Poe, Katherine Balch, Justin Zeitlinger, Daniel James Miller. Bottom row (left to right): Aiyana Tedi Braun, Sydney Wang, Aaron Cecchini-Butler, Matthew Schultheis, Annika K. Socolofsky.
