Classes will meet every Wednesday for six weeks, starting June 18th (with the exception of the week of 4th of July) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at BMI, 320 W. 57th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY.

All classes are filled - applications are no longer being accepted.

For more information email:

Samantha Cox: scox@bmi.com

Glenda Miller: gmiller@bmi.com

Ben Tischker: btischker@bmi.com

Download Application

This six-week BMI vocal workshop will help songwriters and singers develop the skills needed to showcase their own songs. The workshop will be headed by accomplished vocal couch, performer and songwriter Beth Burrows.

Classes will meet every Wednesday for six weeks, starting June 18th (with the exception of the week of 4th of July) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at BMI, 320 W. 57th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY.

Class size is limited and acceptance into the BMI vocal workshop is at the sole discretion of the instructor and BMI representatives. All Submissions must be received before May 30th for consideration.

For more information email:

Samantha Cox: scox@bmi.com

Glenda Miller: gmiller@bmi.com

Ben Tischker: btischker@bmi.com

Download Application

This six-week BMI vocal workshop will help songwriters and singers develop the skills needed to showcase their own songs. The workshop will be headed by accomplished vocal couch, performer and songwriter Beth Burrows.

Classes will meet every Wednesday for six weeks, starting June 18th (with the exception of the week of 4th of July) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at BMI, 320 W. 57th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY.

Class size is limited and acceptance into the BMI vocal workshop is at the sole discretion of the instructor and BMI representatives. All Submissions must be received before May 30th for consideration.

For more information email:

Samantha Cox: scox@bmi.com

Glenda Miller: gmiller@bmi.com

Ben Tischker: btischker@bmi.com

Prior to her service at the Minnesota Orchestra, Ms. Cowart served as Artist Liaison with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where her father played English horn and oboe and where she developed an appreciation for contemporary works. The Philharmonic's Green Umbrella new music series, in which Robert Cowart often performed, always left her wanting more.

Aaron Jay Kernis, winner of the coveted 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition and one of the youngest composers ever awarded the Pulitzer Prize, has taught composition at the Yale School of Music since 2003. Among the most esteemed musical figures of his generation, his music figures prominently on orchestral, chamber, and recital programs worldwide and he has been commissioned by many of America‘s foremost performing artists, including soprano Renee Fleming, violinists Joshua Bell and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, soprano Dawn Upshaw, and guitarist Sharon Isbin, and by institutions including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Birmingham Bach Choir, Minnesota Orchestra, and Los Angeles and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras, the Walt Disney Company, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Rose Center for Earth and Space at the Museum of Natural History in New York, among many others. He looks forward to new works for trumpet soloist Philip Smith with the New York Philharmonic and a consortium of “Top 10” college wind ensembles, the Seattle Symphony, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Recent and upcoming recordings include a disc of his song cycles by soprano Susan Narucki (Koch) and orchestral works by the Grant Park Festival Orchestra (Cedille). His music is available on Nonesuch, Phoenix, New Albion and Argo and CRI. One of America's most honored composers, Mr. Kernis received the Grawemeyer Award for the cello concerto “Colored Field” and the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for his String Quartet No. 2 ("musica instrumentalis"). He has also been awarded the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, and received Grammy nominations for "Air" and the Second Symphony.

He has become an especially familiar and much-admired presence in Minnesota's Twin Cities; he has served as Composer-in-Residence for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Public Radio, and the American Composers Forum, and, since 1998, as New Music Advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra, a position he retains to this day. He is chairman and co-director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, a program that gives young composers the opportunity to hear their works played by one of the world’s great orchestras.

Jacob Bancks was born in 1982 in Fairmont, Minnesota and currently resides in Chicago. He received a B.M. degree in composition from Wheaton College in 2003, a M.M. in composition in 2006 from the Eastman School of Music, and is currently working on a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. His composition teachers include Shulamit Ran, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez and Augusta Read Thomas. He has attended composition master classes with Luca Francesconi and Louis Andreissen and studied piano with Vincent Lenti and Daniel Paul Horn. A BMI Student Composer Award-winner in 2006, Bancks has also been honored with a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education, the Century Fellowship from the University of Chicago, and the Eastman School of Music’s Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize. His music has been performed by eighth blackbird, the New York Youth Symphony, Eastman Wind Ensemble, South Dakota Symphony, the Millennium Chamber Players, Eastman Philharmonia, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and the University of Chicago New Music Ensemble. His BMI award-winning work was premiered in 2008 by the New York Youth Symphony in Carnegie Hall, with mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey and Ryan McAdams conducting.

Nicholas Oberg Deyoe
BMI award-winning work: 15 Players for large mixed chamber ensemble

Nicholas Deyoe was born in 1981 in Boulder, Colorado and currently lives in San Diego. He received a B.M. degree in music theory and composition in 2004 and a M.M. degree in orchestral conducting in 2006 from the University of Northern Colorado. He is also the recipient of a M.A. in composition from the University of California San Diego (UCSD), where he will begin work on a Ph.D. in composition in the fall of 2008. He has studied composition with Roger Reynolds, John McLaird and Violeta Dinescu, conducting with Russel Guyver, Rand Steiger and Harvey Sollberger, and guitar with Jonathan Leathwood. He has conducted performances at UCSD of works by Gérard Grisey and Helmut Lachenmann. Recent performances of his work, - fl / vln -, have been occurred at UCSD with John Fonville (flute) and Peter Clark (violin) and at the University of Maryland with Lisa Cella (flute) and Mark Menzies (violin). A new work titled - POS BTR -, for tenor saxophone and piano was recently commissioned by the Kenners, Eliot Gattegno and Eric Wubbels. His BMI award-winning work was premiered by the UCSD New Music Ensemble in October 2007, with the composer conducting.

David Fulmer
BMI award-winning work: Discant Dialects for strings, piano and harpsichord

David Fulmer was born in Boston in 1981 and currently lives in New York City. He received a B.M. with academic honors and distinction in performance in 2004 and a M.M. in 2006 from the New England Conservatory of Music. He is currently a D.M.A. student at The Juilliard School. Fulmer has studied composition with Milton Babbitt, Robert Cogan, Pozzi Escot, and Lee Hyla, and violin with Robert Mann and James Buswell. He has been honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with a Charles Ives Scholarship, and has received scholarships from The Juilliard School and the New England Conservatory, and awards from the NYC King Doctoral Fellowship, a NYC New York Women Composer Grant, the C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellowship, and the 2003-4 George Whitefield Chadwick Gold Medal. He has performed with the New York New Music Ensemble, The Group for Contemporary Music, Speculum Musicae, the Zankel Band, and many other contemporary music groups. Fulmer’s works have been performed by the CUBE ensemble, the Cygnus Ensemble, the Tetras String Quartet, and many other groups in New York and Boston. His BMI award-winning work is scheduled for performance at Juilliard during the 2008-9 concert season.

Gilbert Galindo
BMI award-winning work: Clarion Horizons for orchestra

Gilbert Galindo was born in Odessa, Texas in 1982 and now lives New York City. He received a B.M. in music composition and outreach and education in music in 2004 from Northwestern University and a M.M. in music composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2006. His composition teachers include Jason Eckardt, Margaret Brouwer, Zhou Long, Jay Alan Yim, Augusta Read Thomas, William Karlins, and Amnon Wolman. In addition to winning the BMI Student Composer Award in 2006, he is the recipient of the 2008 Van Lier Fellowship from Meet the Composer, the 1st Place Award in the 2006 Ohio Federation of Music Clubs Young Composers Contest, Northwestern University’s 2004 Cacavas Award for “outstanding composition in chamber music,” the 2003 Chicago Union League Civic and Arts Foundation’s Music Composition Award, the Rev. John M. Krump Endowed Scholarship, William T. Faricy Award for Creative Music, and Interlochen Arts Academy’s Maddy Award in Composition. Galindo’s works have been performed by the ai ensemble, Duo Petrarca, The Lone Star Brass, the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Fine Arts Society, and in Berlin, Chicago, and Cleveland. His BMI award-winning work was read by the Bard Institute Orchestra conducted by the composer in July, 2007.

Trevor M. Gureckis
BMI award-winning work: Very Large Array for orchestra

Trevor Grueckis was born in 1982 and currently lives in New York City. He received a B.M. degree in piano performance from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005 and a M.M. degree in composition from Yale University in 2007. His composition teachers include Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, Ezra Laderman, Kevin Puts, Russel Pinkston, and Dan Welcher and he has studied piano with Danielle Martin, Dariusz Pawlas, and Alisa Bohon. He was a composer participant in the 2007 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute and the winner of a 2007 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded an Endowed Presidential Scholarship at UT Austin and a full scholarship at Yale, participated in the 2005 Cabrillo Conductor/Composer Workshop. As a performer he has participated in chamber ensembles and new music ensembles at UT Austin and at Yale, and has performed at the United Nations in 2005 where he was the winner of the Emil and Ruth Beyer Competition. His music has been performed by the Yale Philharmonia, New Music New Haven, and choreographed by the New Haven ECA. His BMI award-winning work was premiered by the Yale Philharmonic with Shinik Hahm conducting and later performed by the Minnesota Orchestra under the baton of Osmo Vänskä.

Justin Hoke
BMI award-winning work: Che Si Sgretola for flute, two clarinets, celesta and piano

Justin Hoke was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1987. His composition teachers have included John Carbon, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, and David Liptak. Studying piano since the age of five, he has been a student of Joann Wagstaff, Elizabeth Keller and currently works with Tony Caramia. Hoke graduated from Lampeter-Strasburgh High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 2006 and is currently pursuing a B.M. degree from the Eastman School of Music, from which he received the Howard Hanson Scholarship. He attended the Pennsylvania Governor’s School of the Arts in the summer of 2005. In high school, he participated in both the concert and marching bands and since that time has performed on many occasions with various chamber ensembles as a pianist. His Lament was premiered by the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra for elementary-age students in 2006. Several of his works have been presented at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School and at the Eastman School of Music. His BMI award-winning work was premiered by students at the Eastman School in 2007 and was performed again in May, 2008.

Shawn Jaeger
BMI award-winning work: In Old Virginny for soprano and double bass

Shawn Jaeger was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1985 and currently lives in Chicago. He received a B.M. in composition summa cum laude from the University of Michigan in 2007 and is now pursuing a D.M. in composition from Northwestern University. His composition teachers include Lee Hyla, Evan Chambers, Susan Botti, Erik Santos and Bright Sheng. In addition to winning a BMI Student Composer Award in 2007, his honors include many scholarships at the University of Michigan and a Full-Tuition Merit Scholarship at Northwestern. Jaeger was also a Kentucky Senator Jeff Green Scholar and winner of the Louisville Metro Mayor’s Outstanding High School Senior Award in 2003. His music has been performed by the Northwestern University Contemporary Music Ensemble, and he has had many performances at the University of Michigan and readings of his music by the UM Philharmonia Orchestra and by the St. Petersburg String Quartet. His Phase Shifts for solo clarinet was performed at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina. Active as a violinist, he studied with Aaron Berofsky and has performed with many UM ensembles, including the University Symphony Orchestra and the Contemporary Directions ensemble. He has also recorded violin tracks for the rock band, Tally Hall. His BMI award-winning work was premiered in 2008 by the Duo Borealis (Mary Bonhag, Soprano, and Even Premo, double bass) at the University of Michigan, and tour performances are planned for Chicago and Marquette, Michigan.

Yeeren I. Low (Carlos Surinach Prize)
BMI award-winning work: String Quartet

Yeeren I. Low was born 1997 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and currently lives in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He attended the Sterling Montessori Charter Academy from 2001 to 2003 and is currently enrolled at the Gratia Dei Christian Academy and the Juilliard Pre-College Division, where he majors in composition and studies piano and violin. His composition teachers have included Ira Taxin and John Ruggero and he has studied piano with Jennifer Hancock, John Ruggero and Zitta Zohar. He has studied violin with Karen Moorman, Emily Steele, Mary Frances Boyce, Richard Luby, Yoram Youngerman and Isaac Malkin. He has performed as a violinist with the Piedmont Youth Junior Orchestra and the Mallarme Youth Chamber Orchestra. He has been featured as a soloist with the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Raleigh Civic Symphony Orchestra, and often performs chamber music with his brother Yeeray Low. As a performer, he has won 1st place in the Junior Division of the Peter Perret Youth Talent Search in 2005 and 2006 and as a composer he has won awards in the National Federation of Music Clubs Junior Composers Contest in both 2005 and 2006. Low’s music has been performed by several chamber ensembles at Juilliard and read by the Ciompi Quartet at Duke University and the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony. His BMI award-winning work is scheduled to be premiered at Juilliard later this year.

Eric Nathan (William Schuman Prize)
BMI award-winning work: Icarus Dreamt for orchestra

Eric Nathan was born in 1983 in New York City and currently lives in Larchmont, New York. He received a diploma from the Juiliard School Pre-College Division in 2002, a B.A. in music with distinction from Yale University in 2006 and a M.M. degree in composition in 2008 from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He will begin work toward a D.M.A. at Cornell University in the fall. He has studied composition with Claude Baker, Jeffrey Hass, Sven-David Sandström, Kathryn Alexander, John Halle, Matthew Suttor, Ira Taxin and George Tsontakis. He is active as a performer on trumpet, studying with Allan Dean and James Hamlin and at Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and performing with the wind ensembles and orchestras at Indiana University, Yale and Juilliard Pre-College. He has won many composition awards including a 2008 Grant for Young and Emerging Wind Band Composers sponsored by the Atlantic Coast Conference Band Directors Association, a 2008 Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center Commission, the 2007 New York Federation of Music Club’s Brian M. Israel Prize, and the 2005 New York Art Ensemble Young Composer Competition. Nathan’s works have been performed in the United Stated, Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Japan by ensembles such as the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, the Yale Symphony, Juilliard Pre-College Symphony, Indiana University Symphonic Band, and many others. His BMI award-winning work has been read by the Indiana University Symphony.

Read bios of the Student Composer Award winners

The 2008 awards were presented to Jacob Bancks (age 26, studies at the University of Chicago); Nicholas Oberg Deyoe (age 26, studies at the University of California San Diego); David Fulmer (age 26, studies at The Juilliard School); Gilbert Galindo (age 26, studies privately in New York City); Trevor M. Gureckis (age 25, studies privately in New York City); Justin Hoke (age 20, studies at the Eastman School of Music); Shawn Jaeger (age 23, studies at Northwestern University); Yeeren I. Low (age 11, studies at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division) and Eric Nathan (age 24, studies at Indiana University). More biographical information is available at www.bmifoundation.org.

Gilbert Galindo (age 26, studies privately in New York City); Shawn Jaeger (age 23, studies at Northwestern University); Justin Hoke (age 20, studies at the Eastman School of Music); Eric Nathan (age 24, studies at Indiana University); Yeeren I. Low (age 11, studies at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division); Nicholas Oberg Deyoe (age 26, studies at the University of California San Diego); Jacob Bancks (age 26, studies at the University of Chicago); David Fulmer (age 26, studies at The Juilliard School); and Trevor M. Gureckis (age 25, studies privately in New York City).

Also honored during the ceremony were music administrator Beth Cowart and composer Aaron Jay Kernis, who each received the BMI Foundation’s “Outstanding Musical Citizen Award” for their work as Co-Directors of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute. In making the presentation, Jackson said, “This award is intended to recognize individuals who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in their support of American composers and American Music. Beth Cowart and Aaron Kernis are tireless advocates for new music and true champions of the next generation of American composers.”

Read bios of the “Outstanding Musical Citizen Award” recipients

Outstanding Musical Citizen Awardees Beth Cowart (l) and Aaron Jay Kernis (r) with BMI Foundation President Ralph N. Jackson

The BMI Student Composer Awards recognize superior creative talent and winners receive scholarship grants to be applied toward their musical education. In 2008, more than 500 manuscripts were submitted to the competition from throughout the Western Hemisphere, and all works were judged under pseudonyms. Cash awards totaled $20,000. Eric Nathan was the named the winner of the William Schuman Prize, which is awarded to the score judged "most outstanding" in the competition. This special prize is given each year in memory of the late William Schuman, who served for 40 years as Chairman, then Chairman Emeritus, of the BMI Student Composer Awards. Additionally, the Carlos Surinach Prize, awarded to the youngest winner in the competition, went to Yeeren I. Low.

Trevor Gureckis accepts his BMI Student Composer Award from BMI Foundation Advisory Panel member Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and BMI Foundation President Ralph N. Jackson

The distinguished 2008 Student Composer Awards jury members were Robert Beaser, Margaret Brouwer, Kevin Puts, Bernard Rands and Charles Wuorinen. The preliminary judges were Chester Biscardi, David Leisner and Bernadette Speech. Milton Babbitt is the permanent Chairman of the awards.

BMI has given 525 scholarship grants to young composers over the years, and many of today's most prominent and active classical composers received their first recognition from the BMI Student Composer Awards. Eleven former winners have gone on to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize in Music. The BMI Student Composer Awards competition is co-sponsored by BMI and the BMI Foundation, Inc.

2008 Final Judges (l-r): Bernard Rands, Kevin Puts, Charles Wuorinen, Margaret Brouwer, and Robert Beaser