2020-2021
Winner: Zhuosheng Jin
Zhuosheng Jin’s music is described as “powerful” and “haunting” (The New York Times). His composition emphasizes relationships between literature, especially poetry, and sonic texture. His compositional awards include the 2020 Matan Givol Composers Competition (1st prize, Israel), 2020 Salvatore Martirano Award (1st prize, US), 2019 Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (3rd prize, Japan), among others.
Jin's music has appeared in major festivals and has been performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Klangforum Wien (soloists), Ensemble MusikFabrik (soloists), Meitar Ensemble, Quatuor Béla, Ensemble Mdi, Syntax Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, and more. He has worked with conductors including Pierre-André Valade, Jean-Philippe Wurtz, Guillaume Bourgogne, and Kanako Abe.
Having begun piano studies at the age of seven and composition at thirteen, Jin holds degrees from Oberlin College (BMus’15) and Boston University (MMus’17). He is currently a DMus fellow at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, studying with Philippe Leroux. He also followed private lessons and masterclasses with Helmut Lachenmann, Beat Furrer, Pierluigi Billone, and Stefano Gervasoni, among others.
2018-2019
Winner: Henri Colombat
Franco-American composer Henri Colombat (b. 1997) grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. Colombat’s recent works use accumulations of smaller musical objects, with characteristic personalities, which are combined to form cumulative musical identities. Through this process he hopes to provide his listeners with multiple paths of listening, each with its own sequence of twists and turns. Colombat’s work has been featured in such programs as the Canadian Music Days Festival, Quatuor Bozzini’s Vancouver lab, SICPP at NEC, LMCML, and soundSCAPE. Colombat is currently completing his undergraduate degrees in composition and theory at McGill where he studies with Jean Lesage and John Rea.
2017-2018
Winner: Doyoon Kim
Premiered on October 12, 2018 during Piano Homecoming Welcome Concert
DOYOON KIM Motanka, Quodlibet pour deux pianos / for two pianos
Christophe Alvarez, Timothy Ledger, piano
