Division 1 (ages 22-35)

CONGRATULATIONS!
Zach Gulaboff Davis
First Prize winner
2024 Young Composer Competition

Congratulations to composer Zach Gulaboff Davis!  His string quartet Iridescence has won the national Tribeca New Music Division 1 Young Composer Competition for ages 22-35.

Described as “beautiful, lyrical” and brimming with “unexpected harmonic shifts” (International Trumpet Guild), the music of Macedonian-American composer Zach Gulaboff Davis centers on the expressive and dramatic possibilities of compositional narrative. A 2023 MacDowell Fellow and winner of the American Prize in Composition (2019), Zach maintains an active schedule as a composer and collaborator across the globe.

As a composer and pedagogue, Zach has completed residencies at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Hambidge Center, Brevard Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Canada’s Arcady Ensemble, most recently serving as the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow for Composition at Millay Arts. Zach is also 2023 New Jersey State Council of the Arts Fellow for composition.

Also active as a pianist and conductor, Zach has appeared as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, and champion of young composers’ works at the keyboard and podium. Zach holds a D.M.A. in composition and M.M. in music theory pedagogy from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied under Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts; an M.M. in composition from Mannes College of Music in New York City; and a B.A. in piano performance and composition/theory, summa cum laude, from Linfield College, Oregon. In his spare time, Zach is active in American Kennel Club dog sports, traveling the country as a licensed Dog Agility judge. Don’t ask him about the (countless) similarities between composing and designing Agility courses unless you have hours to spare! Born in Los Angeles and raised in Oregon, Zach resides in Jersey City, NJ. For more info: https://www.zgulaboffdavis.com/

As the First Prize recipient of the 2023 Division 1 Young Composer Competition, Zach will received a $1,000 award, and his score will be performed on the Tribeca New Music 2024-2025 Festival.  Stay tuned for details.

Honorable Mentions and Merit Awards

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this national competition. In addition to the first prize composition, Tribeca New Music wishes to acknowledge some of the other exceptional works that were entered:

• The Honorable Mention category recognizes the top tier of compositions that were in contention to win first prize.
• The Merit Award category recognizes those who have shown great promise with their entries.

Honorable Mention

Alex Stephenson for Bloom
Timothy Peterson for Phosphenes
Paul Novak for entwining

Merit Award

Leigha Amick for Solar Filament
Madeline Barrett for softly speaks the wind
Joseph Bozich for Jacob and the Angel
Andrew Burke for corner of your eye
Alexa Canales for Maybe Someday
Daniel De Togni for Postcards from Veneto
Natalie Dietterich for uproot
Aidan Gold for Music Speech Music
Rolando Gomez for Sit and Play
Alan Hankers for Elapse
Edward W. Hardy for Evolution - Inspired by the Evolution of Black Music
Kiki Xiaoman Liu for Patterns
Isaac Smith for Daydreams of Vioet the Dog
Peter Swanson for Bright Light, Op. 19
Jihwan Yoon for Essay for String Quartet

Division 2 (ages 21 and under)

CONGRATULATIONS!
Jonah Cohen
First Prize winner
2024 Young Composer Competition

Congratulations to composer Jonah Cohen! His piano quartet That Special Place for violin, viola, cello, and piano, has won the national Tribeca New Music Division 2 Young Composer Competition for composers 21 years old and younger.

Jonah Cohen (b. 2004) is a composer, conductor, pianist, and cellist from Farmington Hills, MI and is currently based in New York City. His compositions tend to revolve around his fascinations with space, time, motion, and stagnation, and how they are relevant in the here and now. He strives to write music that is accessible yet unafraid to explore sonic realms that may be uncomfortable. Jonah has received recognition from ASCAP, National YoungArts Foundation, Foundation for Modern Music, National Young Composers Challenge, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Chicago College of Performing Arts, Music Teachers National Association, and many others for his work.

He has been lucky enough to attend numerous composition programs and festivals, including Yellow Barn, Salastina’s Sounds Promising, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Atlantic Music Festival, Interlochen Arts Camp, and Curtis Young Artists Summer Program. Jonah has also had the privilege of working with such luminaries as Martin Bresnick, Gabriela Lena Frank, Melinda Wagner, Ellen Reid, Pierre Jalbert, Reiko Fueting, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Frank Ticheli, Nico Muhly, and Chaya Czernowin.

Jonah recently graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy, where he majored in composition and studied with Dr. Cynthia Van Maanen. At the Academy, Jonah was honored to receive the Neil Rabaut Memorial Composition Scholarship and the Young Artist Award. Jonah is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Composition degree at The Juilliard School, studying with Dr. David Ludwig. For more info: https://www.jonahcohenmusic.com/

As the First Prize recipient of the 2023 Division 2 Young Composer Competition, Jonah will received a $1,000 award, and his score will be performed on the Tribeca New Music 2024-2025 Festival. Stay tuned for details.

Honorable Mentions and Emerging Composer Awards

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this national competition. In addition to the first prize composition, Tribeca New Music wishes to acknowledge some of the other exceptional works that were entered:

• The Honorable Mention category recognizes the top tier of compositions that were in contention to win first prize.
• The Emerging Composer category recognizes those who have shown great promise with their entries.

Honorable Mention

Yiming Jia for Liberosis
Andrew Xu for Sonata for Violin and Piano

Emerging Composers

Payton Brown for Reflections
Amy Chen for After the Storm
Ben Dunham for The Vibrance on Ocean Drive
Joshua Johnson for String Quartet No. 13 in F Minor
Fabian Leung for Nomura’s Jellyfish
James Liang for The Birds of Spring
Cynthia Liu for A Wanderer’s Tale
Haoyang Ma for Mirage of Time Whispers
Chase Morrison for Skagway Heights
Zhengtao Pan for Woodwind Quintet no. 1
Yifan Shao for Ardor
George Socolow for Parsifal Backwards
Billy Waldman for Liebestraum
Philina Zhang for Siren Meanders
Sebestian Zhang for para-parakeet