Current student, Patricia Wallinga, and alumni Tonia Ko (MM, 2012) and Max Grafe (BM, 2011) have been named winners in the 63rd annual BMI Student Composer Awards, a competition open to young classical composers throughout the Western Hemisphere. Renowned American composer and permanent Chair of the Student Composer Awards, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, BMI President and CEO and Honorary Chair of the BMI Foundation Mike O’Neill, and BMI Foundation President Deirdre Chadwick, announced the decisions of the jury and presented the awards at a private ceremony held on May 18, 2015, at the J. W. Marriott Essex House Hotel in New York City.
In addition, Max Grafe was named a co-winner of the William Schuman Prize for best score.
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Above: Pictured are the 2015 BMI Student Composer Award winners: (Front, L-R) Avik Sarkar (Carlos Surinach Prize), Tonia Ko, Joseph Meland, Benjamin P. Wenzelberg; (Back, L-R) Patricia Wallinga, Matthew Aaron Browne, Daniel Silliman (William Schuman Prize), Max Michael Grafe (William Schuman Prize), and Thomas Kotcheff. Photo by Melissa Dispenza