BMI Composer Awards
for classical composers
The BMI Composer Awards is an annual competition open to young composers engaged in the creation of classical music. Our oldest awards program in any genre, the competition has a prestigious history of discovering and encouraging many of today’s most prominent and talented young composers.
BMI first established the Composer Awards in 1951 to recognize superior musical compositional ability and further the classical music education of young talent. Since its inception, the competition has awarded over 600 awards to musicians, including twenty future Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists, and is widely regarded as the premier recognition for young composers of classical music in the Western Hemisphere.
Co-sponsored by BMI and the BMI Foundation, awards totaling $20,000 are determined annually for works for any instrumentation and in any classical genre, submitted by composers under the age of 28. All works are judged anonymously by a panel of esteemed classical composers that has included such icons of American music as Bernard Rands, George Lewis, Christopher Rouse, Tobias Picker, and Ingram Marshall as well as notable newer voices such as Kristin Kuster, Matthew Evan Taylor and Sean Shepherd. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music, serves as the permanent chair of the competition.
Winners are honored at an award ceremony in New York City each spring. A special Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize, given to honor the long-time chair of the awards, is awarded to the composer whose work is judged “most outstanding” in the competition. Additionally, the Carlos Surinach Prize recognizes the youngest winner of the competition each year.
Past winners of the BMI Student Composer Awards include such luminaries as John Adams, William Bolcom, Kevin Puts, Cindy McTee, and Joseph Schwantner, and in more recent years, emerging talents such as Katherine Balch, Lara Poe and Kevin Day.
The Music Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center houses the BMI Student Composer Awards Archive, a permanent collection of winning scores dating back to the inaugural competition. Scores are donated by composers to the Archive on a voluntary basis and are available for study within the library.
Eligibility Requirements
All applicants:
must be under the age of 28 as of February 15, 2024.
must be in residence in the United States or its territories; or citizens of any country in the Western Hemisphere.
may only submit one application per BMI Foundation awards program.
may not submit the same musical work to more than one BMI Foundation awards program.
may only reapply if they have not won more than two BMI Composer Awards (excludes Honorable Mention).
may not submit works that have won any other award or recognition or works that are under contract with a publisher or record label.
may submit works that use text not written by the applicant, so long as they prove either that the text is used with permission, or that the text is in the public domain.
must submit all works anonymously, with no name or any identification marks on the score beyond the title and composition.
may not submit co-composed works.
Application Requirements
The anonymized score of your original composition.
Both transposed and C-scores are acceptable.
If your score contains extended techniques or electronics, you may submit a sound file with your application.
If your score contains text, you must also submit a letter of permission from the writer, or proof that the text is within the public domain.