The Joseph H. Bearns Prize in Music was established on February 3, 1921, by Lillia M. Bearns, in memory of her father. It was her desire to encourage talented young composers in the United States. The Prize, administered by

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, is open to

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

citizens who are at least 18 and no more than 25 years of age, and is divided among larger-form works (orchestral, choral, etc.) and smaller-form works (soli, quartet, sextet, etc.). The Prize is one of the largest given to young American composers, totaling $7200 in 2006.

Past winners

Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his Serialism, serial and electronic music. Biography Babbitt was born in Philadelphia t ...

(for ''Music for the Mass'') * Christopher Bailey (for ''Six Songs on Poems of John Monroe'') *

Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...

(1929, for ''Violin Sonata'', and again in 1933, for ''School for Scandal Overture'') *

William Bergsma William Laurence Bergsma (April 1, 1921 – March 18, 1994) was an American composer and teacher. He was long associated with Juilliard School, where he taught composition, until he moved to the University of Washington as head of their music ...

* Stephen Cabell (2004, for Cosmicomic) * Ronald Caltabiano (1981, 1983) * Carlos R. Carrillo Cotto (1993, for Cantares) * William Coble * Glen Cortese *

Alvin Curran Alvin Curran (born December 13, 1938) is an American composer, performer, improviser, sound artist, and writer. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and lives and works in Rome, Italy. He is the co-founder, with Frederic Rzewski and Richard ...

Richard Danielpour Richard Danielpour (born January 28, 1956) is an American composer. Early life Danielpour was born in New York City of Persian Jewish descent and grew up in New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida. He studied at Oberlin College and the New En ...

(1982) *

Mario Davidovsky Mario Davidovsky (March 4, 1934 – August 23, 2019) was an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the United States, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He is best known for his series of compositions ca ...

* Jonathan Dawe * Charles Dodge *

Emily Doolittle Emily Lenore Doolittle (born 16 October 1972) is a Canadian composer, zoomusicologist, and Athenaeum Research Fellow and Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland based in Glasgow, Scotland. Her music, frequently inspired by ...

(1997, for ''Weather Songs'') * Michael Eckert * Renee Favand (1995, for ''Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.'')Columbia University Record
/ref> * Mark Gustavson (1983, for ''Textures of Time'') *

Daron Hagen Daron Aric Hagen ( ; born November 4, 1961) is an American composer, writer, and filmmaker. Biography Early life Daron Hagen was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and grew up in New Berlin, a suburb west of Milwaukee. Hagen was the youngest of t ...

(1985, for ''Trio Concertante'') * Mark Hagerty * Kevin Hanlon * William Harvey (for ''Cuerpo Garrido'') *

Joel Hoffman (composer) Joel Hoffman (born 1953 in Vancouver) is a Canadian/American composer of contemporary classical music and pianist living in New York, New York. Hoffman's music draws much of its richness and variety from such diverse sources as Eastern Europe ...

(1975, for ''Variations for violin, cello, and harp'') *

Stephen Jaffe Stephen Jaffe (born December 30, 1954, in Washington, D.C.newsobserver.com
< ...

(1976, for ''Four Nocturnes'') *

Pierre Jalbert Pierre Jalbert (9 January 1925 – 22 January 2014) was a Canadian skier, actor, and motion picture film and sound editor, primarily known for his role as "Caje" on the US television 1960s World War II program ''Combat!''. Early life He was ...

* Evan Johnson (2006) * Brooke Joyce (1999) * Louis Karchin *

Aaron Jay Kernis Aaron Jay Kernis (born January 15, 1960) is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as Direct ...

Kenneth Lampl Kenneth Lampl (born November 7, 1964) is an American composer and lecturer known for his film, television and choral music. He is the former head of the Australian National University School of Music. Biography Born in the Bronx, New York, La ...

* David Lang (1983) *

Paul Lansky Paul Lansky (born June 18, 1944, in New York) is an American composer. Biography Paul Lansky (born 1944) is an American composer. He was educated at Manhattan's High School of Music and Art, Queens College and Princeton University, studying wit ...

(1964) *

Anne LeBaron Alice Anne LeBaron (b. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, May 30, 1953) is a United States composer and harpist. Anne LeBaron holds a B.A. in music from the University of Alabama (1974), an M.A. in music from the State University of New Yor ...

(1978) * Roland Leich (1933 for ''Housman Songs'', and 1937 for ''String Quartet'') * Leonard Mark Lewis (1999) *

Steven Mackey Steven ("Steve") Mackey (born February 14, 1956) is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator. Life As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey's compositions are i ...

* Shafer Mahoney *

Paul Moravec Paul Moravec (born November 2, 1957) is an American composer and a University Professor at Adelphi University on Long Island, New York and also a member of the composition department of the Mannes School of Music . Already a prolific composer, he ...

* Lynn David Newton (1965, for ''Sonata for Piano'') * Paul Nordoff (1933, for ''Piano Concerto'') * Joshua Penman (2004, for ''Aevum'') * Daniel Perlongo (for ''Seven Pieces'') *

Tobias Picker Tobias Picker (born July 18, 1954) is an American composer, artistic director, and pianist, noted for his orchestral works ''Old and Lost Rivers'', ''Keys To The City'', and ''The Encantadas'', as well as his operas ''Emmeline'', ''Fantastic Mr. ...

James Primosch James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

(1981) *

David Rakowski David Rakowski (born June 13, 1958, St. Albans (city), Vermont, St. Albans, Vermont) is an American composer and typeface designer. He studied under such composers as Robert Ceely, John Heiss, Milton Babbitt, Peter Westergaard, Paul Lansky, and L ...

(1984, for ''Violin Concerto'') * Jason Roth (1995, for ''Second String Quartet'') * Jake Rundall (2006) *

Eric W. Sawyer Eric W. Sawyer (born June 2, 1962 in Brookhaven, New York) is an American orchestral composer, pianist and professor of music at Amherst College. He has studied as an undergraduate at Harvard College, where he was selected as a Harvard Junior ...

(1987) * Carl Schimmel (1999, for ''Capa Cocha'') *

Joseph Schwantner Joseph Clyde Schwantner (born March 22, 1943, Chicago, Illinois) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer, educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 2002. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize. Schwantner ...

(1967) *

Harold Shapero Harold Samuel Shapero (April 29, 1920 – May 17, 2013) was an American composer. Early years Shapero was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on April 29, 1920. He and his family later moved to nearby Newton. He learned to play the piano as a chi ...

(1946, for ''Symphony for String Orchestra'') * Alexander Sigman (2006) * Lani Smith (Co-winner - 1958) for "Prelude and Scherzo for Brass, Timpani and Strings" * David Soley * Anthony Strilko *

Louise Talma Louise Juliette Talma (October 31, 1906August 13, 1996) was an American composer, academic, and pianist. After studies in New York and in France, piano with Isidor Philipp and composition with Nadia Boulanger, she focused on composition from 193 ...

(1932) * Bruce Taub (1971, for ''Variations 11.7.3.3.4'') *

Reynold Tharp Reynold Tharp (born June 17, 1973) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His music reflects a fascination with transitory physical aspects of sound, such as resonance and decay. Tharp was born in Indiana, and studied music compo ...

(1996, for ''Drift'') *

Christopher Theofanidis Christopher Theofanidis (born December 18, 1967, in Dallas, Texas) is an American composer whose works have been performed by leading orchestras from around the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Mosco ...

Augusta Read Thomas Augusta Read Thomas (born April 24, 1964) is an American composer and professor. Biography Thomas studied composition with Oliver Knussen at Tanglewood; Jacob Druckman at Yale University; Alan Stout and Bill Karlins at Northwestern University ...

Richard Toensing Richard Toensing (March 11, 1940 - July 2, 2014) was an American composer and music educator. He studied composition at St. Olaf College and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1967. His mo ...

Christopher Trapani Christopher Trapani is an American/Italian composer of contemporary classical music. In 2007 he won the Gaudeamus Award of the Dutch Gaudeamus Foundation. A CD of his music, ''Waterlines'', was released in 2018. A second release of Waterlines ...

* Benjamin Vanden Heuvel (2018) * Dan Visconti *

David Ward-Steinman David Ward-Steinman (November 6, 1936 – April 14, 2015) was an American composer and professor. He was the author of ''Toward a Comparative Structural Theory of the Arts'', and co-authored ''Comparative Anthology of Musical Forms''. Ward-Stei ...

(1959, for ''Symphony'') *

Hugo Weisgall Hugo David Weisgall (October 13, 1912 – March 11, 1997) was an American composer and conductor, known chiefly for his opera and vocal music compositions. He was born in Ivančice, Moravia (then part of Austria-Hungary, later in his childhood ...

* Richard Willis (for ''Symphony No. 1'') * Cynthia Lee Wong (2004, for ''Fates and Furies'') * Maurice Wright (1974) *

Charles Wuorinen Charles Peter Wuorinen (; June 9, 1938 – March 11, 2020) was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He performed his works and other 20th-century music as pianist and conductor. He composed more than ...

(1958, 1959, and 1961)

References

External links

The Joseph H. Bearns Prize webpage
{{Columbia Awards and prizes of Columbia University American music awards Awards established in 1921