2020-2021 Young Composers Competition Winners

Level One (12-16 years of age)

1st Place: Luca Pasquini, 16, from Denver, CO - for Danse Orphique

2nd Place: Frazar Henry, 14, from Bonita Springs, FL - for Song and Celebration

Level Two (17-21 years of age)

1st Place: Daniel DiMarino, 20, from Cleveland, OH - Cleveland Institute of Music for Three Sketches

2nd Place: Connor Johnson, 20, from Dexter, MI – Michigan State for ( [shift 9] 

2020-2021 Young Composers Competition Winner Biographies

Level One (12-16 years of age)

1st Place: Luca Pasquini, 16, from Denver, CO - for Danse Orphique

Luca Pasquini (b. 2004) is a composer/pianist from Denver, Colorado. Inspired by many different genres, Luca’s music seeks to discover the wonders of the world through modern classical music. He is currently studying piano and composition at Denver School of the Arts under Mitchell Alpaugh. He also is privately studying piano with Brad Marcotte and composition with Leanna Kirchoff and is a member of the Denver Young Artist Orchestra. At the DSA program, he has collaborated with Ben Thompson, as well as the members of Conrad Kehn's Playground Ensemble, and was chosen twice to be featured in the Playground Ensemble's Colorado Composer's Concert as the K-12 Winner. Luca was a Western Region winner in the National Federation of Music Club's Junior Composer Contest placing 2nd on the National Level. Recently he was a part of the 2020 Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Summer High School Composition Intensive, studying with Jim Dalton, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and Mischa Salkind-Pearl.

2nd Place: Frazar Henry, 14, from Bonita Springs, FL - for Song and Celebration

Frazar P. Henry is the critically acclaimed and award winning, home-schooled ninth grade composer/pianist residing in Bonita Springs, FL. who—days before our worlds came to a screeching halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic—scored a musical hat trick in just one weekend, meriting the 1st Prize in three different competitions: the Miami Music Teachers Foundation Composition Contest, the Frost International Young Artists Piano Concerto Competition, and the Frost International Young Artists Solo Piano Competition! In addition to winning the ASCAP Foundation 2018 Morton Gould Young Composer Award for his orchestral overture In Exordium—Henry’s second ASCAP/Morton Gould honor in three years—he won 1st Prize for Piano in the 2019 Music Foundation of Greater Naples Scholarship Competition and has been the State Winner (Florida) of the MTNA Composition Competition two years running. Henry has also garnered notable awards and recognition from the Tribeca New Music 2020 National Young Composer Competition, the 2019 Tampa Bay Symphony 4th annual Call for Scores Composition Competition, and the 2019 Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York’s Emerging Composers Competition, as well as multiple First Place finishes in the FGCU/Steinway Piano Society Young Artist Piano Competition.

Level Two (17-21 years of age)

1st Place: Daniel DiMarino, 20, from Cleveland, OH - Cleveland Institute of Music for Three Sketches

Daniel DiMarino was born in the greater Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania in 2000. He spent five years of his life in Pleasanton, California, and has been living outside Philadelphia since 2005. Daniel grew up studying piano and violin, and started to explore the world of composition at age 8. He began his formal music theory and composition training when he was 13.

His most recent classical works include a three-movement work for piano, clarinet, and cello, Zeal and Whimsy for woodwind quartet, Artisan’s Tools for Marimba and Harp, and a short piece for violin and piano. Daniel has also written electronic and soundtrack-style music. He was selected as the Youth Category winner of the CINE Marvin Hamlisch Film Score Contest in 2018 with his film score for a student-made short film, Virtus Vitae.

Daniel is a junior, double-majoring in violin performance and music composition at CIM. He composition with Dr. Keith Fitch, and violin with Dr. Olga Kaler.

2nd Place: Connor Johnson, 20, from Dexter, MI – Michigan State for ( [shift 9]

Connor Johnson is a Michigan-based trumpet player and composer. He is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance at Michigan State University studying under Justin Emerich, as well as studying composition with Dr. Alexis Bacon. Recently, Connor’s “[shift-9]” for Pierrot ensemble was named Honorable Mention in the 2020 Blue Mountain/Forecast Call for Scores, and his saxophone quartet “Scenes Unseen” was selected as a runner-up in the Sinta Quartet’s 2020 Composition Competition. Several of his other works have been recognized by groups including the Hypotenuse Trio, the Additive Color Ensemble, and Tribeca New Music. Connor is also an accomplished performer, recently having been selected as a finalist for the 2020 Next Generation Trumpet Competition.

2020-21 Guest Composer: David Werfelmann

David Werfelmann is an award-winning American composer of instrumental, vocal, and electronic music whose works are widely performed and recorded by ensembles and soloists throughout the United States. His orchestral music has been performed by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as well as the major orchestras of the USC Thornton School of Music, IU Jacobs School of Music, and the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. David’s Arclight Alley, commissioned and premiered by the Lawrence University Wind Ensemble, has also been performed by the wind ensembles of USC Thornton School of Music, CSU Stanislaus, and the SCSBOA Honors Band. Among the many saxophone quartets that perform his work Hypercolor are the Zzyzx, Red Rock, Lawrence University, and Georgia Southern University Quartets, as well as the Fischoff Award-winning Barkada Saxophone Quartet.

David’s music is heard frequently at conferences, festivals, and recitals around the United States and Europe, including the CMS International Conference in Belgium (2019), the C4 Premieres Workshop, the USF New Music Festival, the NOW HEAR Festival, NACUSA and SCI conferences, North American Saxophone Alliance conferences, the Society of Electroacoustic Music in the United States convention, the CSU Fullerton New Music Festival, the Berkeley Arts Festival, the Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium, the Los Angeles Composers Project, the Zeltsman Marimba Festival, the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, and at concerts in Bologna and Ravenna, Italy. Among the many honors David’s works have received, his orchestral work The Mad Machine won the BMI Student Composer Award in 2011.

Saturday, March 20, 2021