The Young Composers Project gives students of WSMTA members the opportunity to submit their original compositions for judging and comments by qualified adjudicators.
These adjudicators are college professors and/or private teachers whose area of expertise is composition. The project provides educational feedback, a goal-setting format, and a focus on music that students love – their own compositions. Adjudicators select a first, second and third place composition for each grade level giving written comments. Certificates are awarded to all participants, and a small monetary prize is awarded to each first place winner (see yearly Rules and Guidelines form for details.) First-place winners are invited to perform their compositions at the WSMTA Conference each June.
2026 REGISTRATION: February 1 – 28, 2026
2025 Young Composer Project Winners List
The emphasis in the Young Composers Project is that of educating our students in the field of musical composition. This year, 53 compositions were submitted with a number of them being submitted “for comment only”. A total of 22 teachers participated and judges have selected “winners” at each level, which are listed below. Congratulations to both the students and teachers!
Primary (K-2)
First Place:
Graeme Auchterlonie
(student of Kaitlyn Ronstadt)
Down Deep
Honorable Mention:
Caleb Miller
(student of Frances Goei, NCTM)
Haunted House
Grade 3
First Place:
Lilly McIntyre
(Student of Angela Michael, NCTM)
Little Bunny
Grade 4
Honorable Mention:
Bennen Majors
(Student of Kaitlyn Ronstadt)
AGE
Honorable Mention:
Desmond Tanielian
(Student of Alex Tanielian)
The Haunted Adventure
Grade 5
First Place (tied):
Noah Hadzariga
(Student of Andrea Rackl)
A Dark Breeze
First Place (tied):
James Pearce Ullrich
(Student of Mary Grant, NCTM)
Pineapple Dance
Third Place:
Mike Meyer
(Student of Andrea Rackl)
Moving
Honorable Mention:
Nicholas Blum
(Student of Andrea Rackl)
The Fictional Narrative
Grade 6
First Place:
Inga Marston
(student of Frances Goei, NCTM)
Marston Moor
Second Place:
Caleb Buker
(student of Frances Goei, NCTM)
Right But Wrong
Third Place:
Capryce Krebsbach
(Student of Kim Bowman)
Maple Syrup
Honorable Mention:
Archibold Papson
(student of Andrea Rackl)
The Song
Grade 7
First Place:
Junhao Fang
(Student of Rick Asher)
Waltz in A minor
Second Place:
Avin Gupta
(Student of Kristina Lee)
Tastes
Third Place:
Ammon Hill
(Student of Andre Rackl)
Piano Quartet in D minor
Honorable Mention:
Daniel Li
(student of Chen Liang)
Rain
Grade 8
First Place:
David Brown
(Student of Vicki Boeckman)
Dreams on a Winter Day
Second Place:
Howard Zhang
(Student of Kristina Lee)
C of Clouds
Third Place:
Brendan Stinson
(Student of Amy Riffle-Kouyeas)
Colorless Sunrise
Grade 9
First Place:
Ashwath Polali
(student of Brandon Cain)
Autumn’s Fall
Second Place:
Videep Mannava
(student ofAmy Riffle-Kouyeas)
Free Fall
Third Place:
Jayce Brown
(Student of Marie Wollam-Mergler)
The Marathon
Honorable Mention:
Camille Fortna
(student of Nathan Campbell)
Obscurity
Grade 10
Honorable Mention:
Noah Brenton
(Student of Andrea Rackl)
Lunacy
Grade 11
First Place:
Thurmond Russell
(Student of Johnandrew Slominski)
Waltz Ballade
Second Place:
Ruth Skelton
(Student of Andrea Rackl)
Concetto Etude
Third Place:
Leya Balayoghan
(Student of Kristina Lee)
Suspended Animation
Honorable Mention:
Abigail Duke
(student of Melanie Stroud, NCTM)
Frost Beneath the Dawn
Honorable Mention:
Lila Unfried
(student of Andrea Rackl)
Roving Destrier
Grade 12
Third Place:
Emory Meyer Loewen
(Student of Andrea Rackl)
Prelude in C
Honorable Mention:
Natalie Boiselle
(Student of Naomi Johnson)
Sagebrush Song
2025 Young Composers Project
2025 YCP GUIDELINESIf you have any questions or suggestions for the YCP program, please contact chair Frances Goei or Education Board Chair Michelle Mielke.
Registration
Opens: February 1, 2025
Closes: February 28, 2025
If you have other questions, please contact WSMTA Administrative Coordinator Kirsten Carlson.
Please make note of the following changes to the Young Composers’ Project for 2025
- Once someone wins (first place only) in 2025, they will not be eligible to compete in 2026. They can submit for comment only. They will be eligible for competition again in 2027. Anyone receiving second , third, or Honorable Mention is eligible to compete again each year.
- All solo and duet performances must be live. Video recordings of a live performance of a winning composition with three or more players will be allowed. The 2025 performance will take place on June 28.
- The performance time of compositions will be limited to 3 minutes for K-4, 5 minutes for grades 5-8. and 7 minutes for grades 9-12.
- The collegiate and teacher categories have been removed due to insufficient participation.
- The first-place composer does not need to attend the YCP recital at the state conference in order to receive their monetary prize. WSMTA hopes students will make an effort to do so as this is very special event.
- Travel grants will again be given to all YCP performers and their collaborators (accompanist or ensemble partners) who attend the WSMTA conference YCP recital.
Classifications, Levels, and Entry fee per composition:
| LEVEL | GRADE | PRIZES AWARDED | ENTRY FEE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | Grades K-2 | One first-place award ($30) for all three grades | $30 |
| Elementary | Grades 3-6 | Each grade is awarded a first place prize ($30) | $30 |
| Junior | Grades 7-9 | Each grade is awarded a first place prize ($55) | $35 |
| Senior | Grades 10-12 | Each grade is awarded a first place prize ($80) | $40 |
Young Composers Project Chair
2025 Young Composers Project Judges
Rick Asher
Rick Asher holds degrees in Music Education from Western Washington University and the University of Oregon, each with an emphasis in instrumental conducting and piano. Additionally, he completed doctoral coursework in Music Education with an emphasis in choral conducting and teacher education at the University of Washington. He studied the Alexander Technique for thirteen years with Catherine Madden, and continues his own focus on applying that technique in his teaching and in his life.
Asher’s career includes teaching instrumental and vocal music from elementary through university levels, as well as studio instruction in piano and voice. Following eight years of teaching elementary and high school music, he moved to Edmonds Community College, where he taught in the Music Department for twenty-four years, eventually becoming Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences. He also served as director of Cascade Youth Symphony, the Whatcom Chorale in Bellingham, and the Sanctuary Choir of Seattle First Baptist Church.
Now retired from full-time positions, he maintains a studio of piano and voice students at his home in Shoreline and spends time most evenings writing vocal and instrumental music.
More important than all of that, he’s husband to artist and calligrapher, Jocelyn Curry Asher, Dad to Eli and Emily, and Papa to ten year old Ada.
Jiyoun Chung
The work of composer and pianist Jiyoun Chung (b. 1982, South Korea) has received many distinctions and awards and is often performed at festivals and concerts in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Her current compositional interests lie in encompassing various cultural influences into her works. Her identity as a Korean immigrant allows her to bring two different cultural perspectives to her work. However, Chung’s works are not limited to the fusion of Korean and concert music. Other inspiration comes from various musical portraits and genres such as contemporary concert music, K-pop, jazz, musical theater, hip-hop, street music, and world traditional music. Languages, structures, timbres, and vocabularies from different musical arts have expanded her musical palette, which speaks to a broad range of audiences.
Jiyoun Chung received her BM in Composition from Hanyang University in South Korea. She earned her MM in Composition and in Piano Performance from Illinois State University, studying with Carl Schimmel and Martha Horst. She received her DMA in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she studied with Chen Yi, Zhou Long, and James Mobberley. Currently she is an Assistant Professor of Music at Central Washington University.
Charles Halka
Charles Halka’s music spans the broad space between “energetic” and “crazed” (New York Times) and “haunting” and “reflective” (Houston Press). With performances and commissions from the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra led by Marin Alsop, Alarm Will Sound, Mivos Quartet, counter)induction, Callithumpian Consort, and ÓNIX Ensamble, among many others, his works have been heard internationally at venues and events such as The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, The Intimacy of Creativity, ISCM World Music Days, and Foro Internacional de Música Nueva.
Recent honors include a Barlow Endowment General Commission and the Copland House Residency Award, as well as residencies at MacDowell and the M.K. Sarbievijaus Cultural Center in Kražiai, Lithuania. Further support has come from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the U.S. Fulbright program, and the Nevada Arts Council. Halka earned degrees from The Peabody Conservatory and Rice University, and is Associate Professor of Composition and Theory at Western Washington University.
Terry McQuilkin
Terry McQuilkin has written works for solo piano, chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and chorus. Several of his compositions were written specifically for student performers, and he has received commissions from school ensembles on both coasts. In 2006, the Oregon Music Teachers Association selected McQuilkin as its composer of the year and commissioned a work to be premiered at that year’s state conference. In 2016, the Delgani String Quartet commissioned him to write a work to help the ensemble inaugurate its initial subscription season; the resulting work is “Invisible Light,” which may be heard on Degani’s CD of the same name.
In 2021 McQuilkin retired from the University of Oregon, where he taught music composition since 2002. Currently he is the program annotator and pre-concert lecturer for the Amici Chamber Music concert series in Springfield, Oregon.
Born in Los Angeles, he earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in music composition at the University of Southern California, where his teachers included Morton Lauridsen, James Hopkins, Anthony Vazzana, and William Kraft. He subsequently took music education courses at UCLA and received his California teaching credential, and taught instrumental music at Robert A. Millikan Middle School in Los Angeles for about five years.
In 1990, McQuilkin began advanced study at the University of Oregon, where his teachers included Harold Owen and Robert Kyr. While a graduate student, he taught music theory, musicianship, and music literature. He has also taught music at Northwest Christian College and Umpqua Community College, and for several years directed the choir at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Eugene.
Several of McQuilkin’s works and arrangements have been published by Neil A. Kjos Music, and Southern Music Company of San Antonio.