Each year, the New York Composers Circle sponsors the John Eaton Memorial Competition. In 2015, the name was changed to honor our late Honorary Member John Eaton. The competition is open to composers of all ages who live in the New York metropolitan area, with the exception of current NYCC members and prior NYCC contest winners. The winning composition is performed at one of the NYCC’s concerts during the following season, and the winner also receives one year’s free membership in the Composers Circle.


The New York Composers Circle reserves the right to not select a winner in any given year, or may chose to award multiple winners as the selection committee deems appropriate. All decisions of the selection committiee are final and may not be challenged.


Past winning composers and pieces of the annual New York Composers Circle John Eaton Memorial Competitions are as follows:


2019: Cheng Jin Koh Ecstasy for Piano Quartet.

             Honorable mentions for 2019: Derek Cooper, Kill James for bassoon, cello, and piano, Michael

             Salvatore Grebla, Sfidare for string quartet, and Ursula Kwong-Brown, Unwinding II for string

             quartet.

2018: Gilad Cohen, Three Goat Blues for string quartet

2017: Andrey Komanetsky, String Quartet in Five Movements

2016: No prize awarded.

2015: Ross Griffey, Tied by a Chance Bond Together, for violin and piano

2014: Vladimir Del Orbe, Contextual Enigma for clarinet, double bass, and piano.

             Honorable mentions for 2014: José Beviá, Trio No. 3 for Violin, Cello, and Piano; Jonathan Bingham,

             Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano

2013: Eric Segerstrom, Two Poems, for piano trio

2012: Jesse Diener-Bennett, Ninth for Two, for flute and violin

2011: Max Giteck Duykers, Glass Blue Cleft, for string quartet

2010: Scott D. Miller, Polychrome Stride, for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

2009: Elizabeth Lim, Wafting, for string quartet

2008: Robert S. Cohen, The Mysterious Transformation of Johann B., for clarinet and 6 percussionists

2007: Dana Dimitri Richardson, Ballade, for piano

THE NYCC

The NYCC Composers' Competition

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