BMI Foundation Announces 74th Annual BMI Composer Award Recipients
L-R: 2026 Winner Calvin Rice, 2026 Winner Jacky Jiaqi Liu, BMI AVP, Creative – Classical and Jazz Deirdre Chadwick, 2026 Winner Jackson A. Waters, 2026 Winner Cheryl Gau, 2026 Winner Cole Reyes, 2026 Winner Kevin Cromer, 2026 Winner Maya Miro Johnson, BMI Foundation Senior Director Susan Bywaters. Photo by Brian Berson for BMI
NEW YORK, NY - May 28, 2026 – BMI Foundation, Inc. and BMI announced the recipients of the 74th Annual BMI Composer Awards on May 27th at Joe’s Pub in New York City. The awards, which celebrate excellence in composition, were presented to seven emerging composers by BMI Foundation President and BMI AVP Creative, Classical & Jazz Deirdre Chadwick, BMI Chief Executive Officer, Mike O’Neill, and BMI Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue and Creative Officer Michael Steinberg.
Thanks to a recent gift to the Foundation from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams, as well as other donors, total awarded funds in 2026 exceeded $30,000, over $10,000 more than in previous years.
The 2026 award winners are:
Kevin Cromer – Age 22, student of Susan Botti
Cheryl Gau – Recipient of the Carlos Surinach Award for the youngest winner of the competition – Age 13, student of Alan Belkin
Maya Miro Johnson – Recipient of the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Award – Age 24, student of Katherine Balch
Jacky Jiaqi Liu – Recipient of the John Adams Award – Age 23, student of Melinda Wagner and John Corigliano
Cole Reyes – Age 27, student of Michael Daugherty and Julia Wolfe
Calvin Rice – Age 21, student of Robert Kyr and David Crumb
Jackson A. Waters – Age 24, student of Julia Wolfe and Shelley Washington
As a result of the partnership between BMI Foundation and ensembles American Composers Orchestra (ACO) and International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) announced in 2025, two BMI Composer Award recipients will also have their award-winning compositions performed in an upcoming concert. The selected works for this year’s performances, announced at Wednesday’s celebration, were [un]aspirated by Maya Miro Johnson, which will be performed at an American Composers Orchestra EarShot Reading; and Mindcrank—Dancebreak by Calvin Rice, which will be performed at an International Contemporary Ensemble concert.
The evening also featured a performance of excerpts from Alan W. Mackwell’s 2025 BMI Composer Award winning score Rail Dynamics by violinist Christopher Otto, violist David Fulmer, and cellist Michael Nicolas.
The BMI Composer Awards recognize superior ability in music composition with annual awards totaling over $30,000. This year, nearly 650 applications were submitted to the competition from young composers around the world, and all works were judged anonymously. Preliminary judges for the 2026 awards included composers Jennifer Jolley, Daniel Temkin, and Alyssa Weinberg; final judges were Katherine Balch, Richard Carrick, and Elena Ruehr. BMI, in collaboration with the BMI Foundation, has awarded over 600 grants to young composers throughout the history of the competition.
About the Award Winners
Kevin Cromer – Levuana iridescens for string quartet
Kevin Cromer (b. 2004) is a composer and violist of African-American and Korean descent from New York City. Kevin’s cosmopolitan approach to composition is informed by a broad range of extramusical influences, including ecology, film, textiles, history, and literature. He actively supports and helps create a more accessible, diverse, and equitable musical landscape. Kevin is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music, studying under Susan Botti.
Cheryl Gau – Arctic Overture for orchestra
Cheryl started learning composing at 11 from Youtube videos including @AlanBelkin, @OrchestrationOnline and @AdamNeely. By 12 she had won prizes and commissions in local competitions. Since fall 2024 she has been studying harmony and counterpoint online with professor Alan Belkin. She’s also currently enrolled in Juilliard Extension's online composition course. In addition to music she loves creative writing and field biology. She knows many squirrels by name in her neighborhood and keeps a squirrel log.
Maya Miro Johnson – [un]aspirated for orchestra
Maya Miro Johnson is a composer-performer-director whose work explores the visceral intersections of the social and physical body with illness, technology, gesture, and storytelling. She attended Curtis (BM ‘24, Miller Prize/Cassella Award) and Yale (MM ‘26, Fox Gibbs Memorial Prize, Startup Yale Creative Entrepreneurship Audience Choice Prize), and will begin doctoral studies at Brown University in fall 2026. Summer festivals include Darmstadt, Cabrillo, Aspen, Bergen, IYCA Ticino, soundSCAPE, and Tanglewood. She has worked with Ensemble Intercontemporain, De Orkest Ereprijs, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sarasota Festival, loadbang, Tanglewood Music Center, Rock School of Ballet, Barnes Foundation, Moab Music Festival, Baltic Sea Festival, Beth Morrison Projects, Kronos Quartet, Lucerne Festival of Contemporary Music, Kajimoto, Arctic Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Copland House, and has been featured on the albums #What2020LooksLike, This is America, Manuscripts Don’t Burn, Hildegard and Her Sisters. Debut with Protomaterial Records forthcoming. This is Maya’s second BMI Composer Award.
Jacky Jiaqi Liu – Echoes of Impermanence for orchestra
Jacky Jiaqi Liu (b. 2002) is a multi-award-winning Chinese composer based in New York City. Recognized for his poetic, diverse, and dramatic expression, Liu writes music that reflects universal values such as compassion, belonging, and love, inspired by philosophical and literary influences. Liu is completing his Bachelor‘s in Composition at Juilliard with Melinda Wagner, and will pursue a Master's with John Corigliano. Liu is a two-time winner of the Arthur Friedman Prize from the Juilliard Orchestra Competition (2024, 2026). Other accolades include the Charles Ives Award in Chamber Music from the 2024 American Prize, the ASCAP 2023 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, and the 2023 Juilliard Gena Raps String Quartet Prize. Liu’s compositions have been performed internationally, including premieres with Grammy®-winning conductor Lucas Richman, conductor Jeffrey Milarsky, members of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and the Juilliard Orchestra.
Cole Reyes – Little Joys for flute, clarinet, harp, and string quartet
Cole Reyes (b. 1998) is a composer, educator, and arts administrator exploring the intersection of personal experience and the wider world. His music blends lyricism with rhythmic drive, drawing from pop, rock, and folk influences. He has collaborated with leading ensembles including JACK Quartet, Del Sol Quartet, and BlackBox Ensemble. His work has been commissioned by organizations such as the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Lake George Music Festival, and the National Orchestral Institute. He co-founded the professional chamber ensemble, Telos Consort, and is currently a doctoral candidate in composition at the University of Michigan. This is Cole’s second BMI Composer Award.
Calvin Rice – Mindcrank—Dancebreak for string quartet
Calvin Rice (b. 2004) is a composer, pianist, and clarinetist from Seattle, currently studying composition at the University of Oregon with Robert Kyr and David Crumb. His compositions range from the most meditative to the most ecstatic, incorporating a wide spectrum of colors and textures. Rice has received awards from Tribeca New Music, the Sound Ensemble, Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble, and the American Prize. As a composer/performer, Rice has collaborated with soprano Estelí Gomez and Chatter PDX, and as a composer, he has worked with the Mivos Quartet, the nonesuch.reedquintet, and more. His piece Mutation was recently featured on nonesuch.reedquintet’s Southeast Asia tour. In the fall of 2026, Rice will begin his MM in music composition at the Eastman School of Music.
Jackson A. Waters – my rage is quiet for orchestra
As a recipient of the Steinhardt Scholarship from New York University, Jackson A. Waters studied under Julia Wolfe, Justin Dello Joio, and Shelley Washington. His compositional style has earned awards and performances from the New York Youth Symphony’s Jon Deak First Music Grand Prize, American Composers Orchestra Earshot, Emerging Black Composers Project Cabrillo Prize, ARTZenter Composer Grant, NYU Orchestra Composer Residency, Salastina’s Composer Collective, and more, with premieres in historic locations including Carnegie Hall and Herbst Theatre. Additionally, Jackson has collaborated with interdisciplinary creatives such as dance studios (Emerge125), painters (Ari Kim), and filmmakers.
About the BMI Foundation, Inc.
The BMI Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to encourage the creation, performance, and study of American music. The Foundation’s programs include competitive scholarships for songwriters and composers, operating grants for nonprofit arts presenters, and support for innovative music education initiatives in schools and communities across the country. For more information about the work of the Foundation, please visit our website at www.bmifoundation.org. For exclusive news and content, follow @bmifoundation on Instagram and like BMI Foundation on Facebook.
