Joh, Lee & Naylor Named Winners of NOTUS Composition Contest

Euna Joh, Daroo Lee, and Steven Naylor Named Winners of NOTUS Composition Contest
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, October 8, 2025
IU Jacobs School of Music – Bloomington, IN

IU Jacobs School of Music Composition students Euna Joh, Daroo Lee, and Steven Naylor have been named First-Prize winners of the 2026 NOTUS Student Composition Contest.

Euna Joh is a Korean-American composer and pianist currently studying for her Doctor of Music degree in Composition with Prof. Aaron Travers. She also serves as an Associate Instructor in the Composition Department.

Joh’s prize-winning work is Made for Another World, which draws inspiration from a passage in C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” The music reflects this idea of longing through the interplay of two tonal centers: F major for Tenor/Bass and G major for Soprano/Alto.

Daroo Lee is a Korean-born pianist, composer, and educator based in Los Angeles, California, and Bloomington, Indiana. Lee has studied with renowned mentors including P.Q. Phan, Gabriel Jenks, Aaron Travers, and Don Freund.

Lee’s prize-winning work is No Longer Dream, on a text by the composer himself. It references his personal journey and struggle with finding place and purpose in a land far from his original home, as it intersects with his imagination, memory, and dreaming.

Composer and pianist Steven Naylor is a MM student in composition at the Jacobs School of Music studying with Prof. Gabriel Jenks. He is also an Associate Instructor in the Theory department.

Naylor’s prize-winning work is Gong, an exploration of that shimmering sound-space described in two poems by Rilke. The music is set for eight-part mixed choir and two tam-tams, which as Naylor describes “offers an even wider array of sounds than gongs do, while sounding very similar.”

NOTUS will record these prize-winning works as part of three recording sessions in the Georgina Joshi Recording Studio on October 27, 28, and 30. These recording sessions are a collaboration with Music Industry Chair and Professor Michael Stucker and student audio engineers Claire Miller and Enzo Giordano.

Honorable Mentions were also awarded this year to composer Eli Hocking for the score Inungeng mapekkeq-pekkeq and Michael Dixon for the score Self-Proclaimed.

Due to the accelerated need to adjudicate this year’s scores in time for a late October recording session, Associate Professor John Gibson (Director, Center for Electronic and Computer Music) served as the sole judge for this year’s contest, with Prof. DiOrio serving as coordinator and providing advice and information to Prof. Gibson about what would be possible in the Joshi Studio recording sessions. The submission of scores was anonymous and Prof. Gibson did not see names or identifying information until after the final decisions were made.

The annual Contest is open to all current undergraduate and graduate composition students at the Jacobs School of Music.

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Euna Joh is a Korean-American composer and pianist. As a composer, Euna is interested in creating music that is deeply relatable by addressing themes that resonate with people from all walks of life. Euna is particularly drawn to compositions that manipulate time. She finds beauty in the distorted perception of stretched time, as it mirrors how we often experience memory: fluid, nonlinear, and deeply personal. Euna is currently pursuing her Doctor of Music in Composition at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she is serving as an Associate Instructor of composition. When she isn’t composing, she enjoys getting creative in the kitchen, often inventing dishes from whatever happens to be in the fridge.

 

Daroo Lee is a pianist, composer, and educator whose music explores identity, belonging, resilience, and introspection. His works capture the emotional complexity of life’s transitions and invite listeners to reflect on both personal and universal experiences. Lee’s compositions have been performed by the Lakma Symphony Orchestra, Indiana University Symphonic Band, Loadbang, The Rhythm Method, and Juventas Ensemble, and have appeared at major festivals such as the Lake George Music Festival, CAMPGround, the NEO Voice Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival Composer Symposium. He also engages with the forefront of contemporary music and technology through presentations at SEAMUS, NYCEMF, and the Chicago Electro-Acoustic Music Festival.

A first-place winner of The American Prize – The Charles Ives Award and recipient of top honors in the Kuttner Quartet Composition Competition and the LAKMA Competition, Lee blends traditional and modern influences to create music of spiritual depth and emotional resonance. Currently pursuing a Doctorate in Music Composition at Indiana University Bloomington, he has studied with P.Q. Phan, Gabriel Jenks, Aaron Travers, and Don Freund. Lee’s music seeks to provide solace and inspiration, offering healing and connection to those navigating life’s challenges.

 

Composer and pianist Steven Naylor (b. 1999) is a MM student in composition at the Jacobs School of Music; he is also an Associate Instructor in the Theory department. Steven graduated from Bowling Green State University in 2022, earning performance & composition degrees, having formerly graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in 2017. Steven is in demand as a commissioned composer of vocal & instrumental music, and has amassed hundreds of performances as a collaborative pianist. Steven was a Resident Artist with Toledo Opera for two seasons 2022-24. He has also musicked as a voice coach, choir director, musical theatre director, improviser, and film composer. Steven performed solo works at the 8th International Conference on Music and Minimalism in 2022 and the virtual 2020 BG New Music Festival. He has released two albums: weltlandschaft (2024) featuring his vocal music, and his debut album, idyll (2021), featuring piano compositions. He also released the video recording project New Piano Music from Bowling Green, Vol. 1, exemplifying his frequent collaboration with living composers. He lives in Bloomington with his partner Christiana and brown tabby cat Clara.