Each year, the New York Composers Circle sponsors the John Eaton Memorial Composer's Competition, named in honor of our former member and honorary member John Eaton. The competition is open to composers of all ages who live in the New York metropolitan area. NYCC members and prior NYCC contest winners are not eligible to enter the contest. The winning composition is performed at one of the NYCC’s concerts the following year, 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 Composer's Competitions are as follows:
2018: Gilad Cohen, Three Goat Blues for string quartet, and Xiaodi Xu, Song of Ghost 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
NYCC Composer's Competition
Composer Dana Dimitri Richardson, winner of the first annual Composers Competition in 2007.
Composer Gilad Cohen, co-winner of the 12th annual NYCC Composers Competition in 2018.