Announcing the Winners of the third edition of the Graham Sommer Competition!
The Graham Sommer Competition is proud to announce that Kai Kubota-Enright is the grand prize winner of the third edition of the Graham Sommer Competition for Young Composers. The $18,000 first prize for Kai’s new work for chamber ensemble, spatial communication of dripstone, was among $54,000 in total prize earnings awarded at the Concert and Prize Gala on Sunday, May 18, 2025, in Tanna Schulich Hall. This national competition for Canadian composers under the age of 35 was founded by Dr. Graham Sommer (1946-2016), MDCM’72, a graduate of McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and an accomplished pianist and devoted music lover. The inaugural edition took place in 2018.
Five finalists were selected out of over 60 applicants from Canada and living abroad. They were each commissioned to write a new work for sextet Paramirabo (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and vibraphone).
Kai Kubota-Enright is a composer/performer based in Los Angeles. Her musical output encompasses a variety of works for both concert and film, as well as contributions to various interdisciplinary projects. Her music primarily focuses on the relationship between sound and spatial environments, both natural and human-made, as well as how these various elements interact with personal memories and subjectivities; drawing from a variety of western and Japanese influences.
“It is such an honor to have received the first-place prize in the Graham Sommer Competition. It means a lot to have this kind of support, especially as I’m getting ready to move to New York and begin a new chapter in my artistic journey. The prize is helping make that possible, as well as giving me the time and space to keep exploring my musical ideas—whether that’s experimental pieces, improvised live electronic performances, or upcoming albums.
Working with Ensemble Paramirabo was an amazing experience. I took some big risks in the piece, things I wasn’t entirely sure would even work, and they were completely on board. They brought so much care and dedication to the music, and together we created something that was much more compelling and effective than what I could have imagined on my own.
It’s a rare and special thing to have this kind of platform for new music and I am so grateful to the organizers, the jury, and everyone who makes this competition happen!”
Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Kai graduated with a BMus in composition from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, studying composition with Melissa Hui and piano with Sara Laimon. Currently, she is pursuing a MMus in composition at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, studying with Camae Ayewa (professionally known as Moor Mother). She recently completed a commission funded by the 2022 ROSL Composition Award for the London Sinfonietta.
In 2018, she received an award from Bow Seat for her piece Aquas, which utilizes a motif derived from climate data of the seas and terrain. She has also returned annually as a judge for musical works which respond to the climate crisis. In 2019, she received a SOCAN Foundation Young Composer Award for Isaac, and from 2021-2022 as a Composer-in-Residence at the Schulich School of Music, she completed a brass quintet Dream Transmission of Phoenix.
The winning piece, as well as performances of the other finalists’ pieces, may be viewed on the Schulich School of Music YouTube page in the coming months.
The $12,000 second prize was awarded to Philippe Macnab-Séguin for his work, It Was Inside You All Along, with the three $6,000 honourable mention prizes going to Francis Battah, Chris LaRosa, and Christina Volpini. Little Chamber Concerto by Chris LaRosa was also awarded the $6,000 People’s Choice Award, voted upon by the audience in attendance at the concert as well as on the live webcast. More details on the five finalists may be found here.
The members of the jury included composers Katherine Balch, Dorothy Chang, and Vivian Fung; pianist Janelle Fung; flutist Claire Marchand; arts executive Scott Tresham; and Jean Lesage, Associate Professor and Area Coordinator of Music Composition at the Schulich School of Music.
Up next:
Paramirabo will perform the first and second prize winning works by Kai Kubota-Enright and Philippe Macnab-Séguin respectively this August at the Concerts aux Îles du Bic Chamber Music Festival in Rimouski, Quebec.
About Dr. Graham Sommer:
Dr. Graham Sommer died on October 2, 2016, and left a legacy of excellence in medicine and an abiding love for the transformative power of music. A native of British Columbia, Dr. Sommer graduated from McGill’s Faculty of Medicine in 1972 and went on to hold positions at Yale and Stanford Universities, becoming a world-class researcher for 37 years. Dr. Sommer’s enduring passion for music has resonated at McGill, notably through the Dr. Graham Sommer Piano Fund, which supported the restoration of pianos in McGill residences and the purchase of a new piano for Douglas Hall. While Dr. Sommer excelled in his chosen field of medicine, he was also inspired by a lifelong love of music fostered by his own accomplishments as a classical pianist and composer.
