The intent of the competition is to encourage creativity and self-expression in student musicians at all levels through the art of composing. WSMTA winners may advance to Northwest Division and National competitions.
To register for the MTNA Student Composition Competition, go to the MTNA website.
2026-2027 MTNA Composition Competition
Registration deadline: September 9, 2026 (3 pm Eastern time)
Registration and complete information is available by visiting the MTNA Competitions page.
For composition competition guidelines, click here.
Contact Lillian Yang, WA State MTNA Composition Competition Chair for more information.
- YouTube links will be submitted instead of MIDI files.
- Attendance and performance at the national conference is optional for national winners and is not a condition for accepting the prize money.
- MTNA active membership dues must be paid before submission of the registration. A $200 nonmember teacher fee will be assessed if entrant’s teacher has not paid active membership dues for the 2026-2027 membership year.
- Registration deadline is Wednesday, September 9, 2026, 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. There will be no exceptions.
2026-2027 WASHINGTON STATE COMPOSITION COMPETITION RESULTS
ELEMENTARY
JUNIOR
SENIOR
YOUNG ARTIST
NORTHWEST DIVISION COMPETITION
From Washington State
NATIONAL COMPETITION RESULTS
2026 MTNA STUDENT COMPOSITION COMPETITION JUDGES
John M. Kennedy
William Dougherty
Jeffrey Bowen
John M. Kennedy
Composer-Bassist-Educator
The music of composer and bassist John M. Kennedy has been described as “coming out of contemporary music and the Jazz tradition from multiple eras” (James Newton). His first major
international performance was in 1989 with the European premiere of his orchestral work “Portrait…” at the Mozarteum, Salzburg. Since then his work has been presented at festivals worldwide including “June in Buffalo”, the “Hear Now Festival” in Los Angeles, the “Soundways” festival in St. Petersburg, three World Saxophone Congresses, and concerts and recitals on four continents. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Composers Forum, and Meet the Composer have recognized and supported his work with grants and awards throughout his career.
Kennedy’s oeuvre spans large- and small-scale works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, chorus, voice, one-act opera, symphonic wind ensemble, and orchestra. In recent years, his creative focus has turned toward works that celebrate the diversity of contemporary life in the United States, including Sidewalks, a piece for sung and spoken voice, instruments, and media. Forthcoming projects include a recording of his arrangement of Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti” with a group of improvisers from a variety of stylistic persuasions, a new clarinet quartet, and a cantata for peace using the texts of Whitman and Twain for winds, solo double bass, vocalists, and percussion. Recent publications include “Solo Bass” a collection of his works for double bass available on Presto Music and the forthcoming second edition of “Music as Cultural Expression” with his co-author Satik Andriassian will be out in Fall 2026. His work increasingly explores the role of artificial intelligence in musical creation, examining how emerging technologies can expand expressive possibilities and challenge traditional boundaries between composer, performer, and audience.
As a double bassist he performs regularly in orchestral, chamber and Jazz groups in Los Angeles and as a soloist he premiered a series of works by William Roper. In 2021 his teaching was recognized with the President’s Distinguished Professor Award at Cal State LA where he has served as Professor of Composition since 1994. John is a graduate of the University of Michigan, completing the MM and DMA in composition under Leslie Bassett and William Albright, and double bass studies with Lawrence Hurst and Stuart Sankey. For more information on his work, please go to www.johnmkennedy.net.
William Dougherty
William Dougherty is an American composer, sound artist, and educator whose music has been performed internationally by ensembles including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Talea Ensemble, and the Sun Ra Arkestra. His work has been featured at festivals including Tectonics Glasgow, IRCAM’s ManiFeste, and the Donaueschingen Musiktage, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
A recipient of the Luciano Berio Rome Prize in Music Composition, Dougherty has also received fellowships and awards from Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, and other organizations. He holds a DMA from Columbia University and is currently Assistant Professor of Music Composition at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Dougherty is committed to creating spaces for experimental and community-based music making. He is the founder and director of the Seattle Open Orchestra and the Philadelphia Community Orchestra, ensembles that bring musicians of varied backgrounds and experience levels together to explore experimental, improvised, and alternative approaches to making music. At UW, he is also founder of the Summer Composition Institute, a collaboration with the Washington State Music Teachers Association that connects young composers from across the state with UW student composers and performers.
For more information, please visit www.williamdougherty.com
Jeffrey Bowen
Jeffrey Bowen’s compositional works feature gradually evolving processes and explorations of perceptual thresholds, and have been performed by Pascal Gallois, Maja Cerar, Beta Collide, the Seattle Modern Orchestra, and the Luminosity Orchestra, among other ensembles in the USA and Europe.
In 2013 his orchestral work Stalasso was chosen by conductor Ludovic Morlot for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Works program, and he has recently presented work at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, the University of Washington’s Harry Partch Festival, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, the International Computer Music Conference, the SEAMUS national conference, and as a resident artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. In 2019 he received a Jack Straw Artist Support Grant to record his piece for the Harry Partch Instruments, Where All That’s Solid Melts Into Air, and his work What Will Sound (was already sound), for violin and electronics, was released by Parma Records in 2020. His music has been recognized with a First Prize in the 30th International Composition Competition “Città di Barletta,” and with second prizes from the European Composer Competition in 2021 and from the American Prize in 2023.
Bowen is a co-director of Seattle’s Inverted Space Ensemble, which commissions and programs new works alongside adventurous and innovative music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and which has held residencies at Cornish College of the Arts, the University of Washington, and Seattle University. He completed a DMA in composition at the University of Washington under Joël-François Durand, and currently holds teaching positions at both Seattle University and the University of Washington.