IAWM’s concert in September celebrates women across the ages. The location is St. Cäcilien church, one of 12 Romanesque churches in Cologne Germany. Its origin was a women’s convent founded in the 9th century. In the 12th century, the building was replaced with t three-ailed column basilica without a tower, and in 1474 the abbey morphed into an Augustinian convent. Since 1956, St. Cäcilien has served as the collection for the Museum Schnütgen for medieval art.

We have six winners for the 2025 Call for works, five for chamber orchestra and one for smaller ensemble. A review of the concert will be in issue # 4 of the IAWM journal in November.

IAWM 2025 Annual Concert Call for Scores Winners

Tao Yu – Desert Reign

Adi Shapiro – Dragonflies

Stefania de Kenessey – Unorthodox Redux

Ala Gialla – Dearly Beloved

Ayça Akin – Tempesta

Indigo Knecht – Self-Destruction at its Finest

The Winners’ Biographies

Tao Yu, Desert Reign, is distinguished as a composer, performer, and organizer of international cultural projects. She studied at the China Conservatory of Music and the Geneva Conservatory of Music and her works have been commissioned by prestigious institutions, ensembles, and artists. Selected to participate in seminars at IRCAM in Paris, she further honed her mastery of modern compositional techniques. Her compositions include works for symphonic orchestra, chamber music, traditional Chinese instruments, and electroacoustic setups. Originally from Beijing, she currently resides in France. TAO Yu’s works have been performed on all continents, covering countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Russia, Israel, Australia, Brazil, and the United States. Her music contributes significantly to the dialogue between Eastern and Western musical cultures. http://www.composers21.com/compdocs/taoy.htm

Adi Shapiro, Dragonflies, is an Israeli-British composer and singer songwriter whose orchestral, chamber and vocal compositions have been performed internationally and have received multiple awards. At age 17, she was awarded the Promising Young Talent Prize, Vienna Classical Music Academy International Composition Competition. She currently studies composition at the Purcell School in the UK,  and has been accepted to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Stefania de Kenessey, Unorthodox Redux, DE KENESSEY’s music has been performed throughout New York City, from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to Joe’s Pub and La Mama; internationally, it has been heard in more than 35 countries, from Australia to Venezuela. Her output ranges from choral, vocal and operatic pieces to chamber and orchestral work, as well as scores for film, theater and dance. De Kenessey is the inaugural Composer-In-Residence for the Dal Sogno Ensemble, which commissioned “The Names of Woman”, a cantata dedicated to women who have been unjustly neglected by history; the piece premiered at Bargemusic in 2024 and since then has been presented at several venues in the metropolitan area. De Kenessey is also the first Composer-In-Residence for the Accord Treble Choir, which commissioned and premiered her “Urgent Earth” (2024), feminist eco-cantata about the climate change crisis, setting a text by the noted Wiccan poet Annie Finch. She has collaborated regularly with the all-female Ariel Rivka Dance Company and its founding choreographer Ariel Grossman, and now also serves as that company’s Composer-In-Residence. De Kenessey is committed to helping women composers and musicians achieve parity in an unequal, biased world. She is the founding president of the International Alliance for Women in Music and serves on the board of New York Women Composers. http://www.stefaniadekenessey.com/about

Ala Gialla, Dearly Beloved, has a multi-faceted background: she is a pianist, composer, teacher, an arranger and author. She has an extensive classical music background, with a Master’s degree in Piano Performance from Indiana University (USA), and is a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music (UK). Having performed with singers, instrumentalists, choirs and orchestras around the world, Ala has also been a juror for international music competitions and a consultant for piano students and teachers worldwide. Ala has recently started focusing on composing and performing her own original music of a classical crossover style. Her first piano album, “A New Beginning”, including her most popular singles “Autumn” and “Running Away”, was released in 2022. Her newest single “Dearly Beloved” was released in 2024 with positive acclaim. Ala’s mission is to tell a story through her own music and words, and make them accessible for everyone.

Ayça Akın, Tempesta, is a Turkish-American composer. Akın studied piano performance for ten years at Carnegie Mellon University’s Music Preparatory School under teacher Ralph Zitterbart. From 2022 to 2024, Akin completed her orchestral composing studies under composer and teacher Leon Willett. Recognized for her strong musical intuition and emotional depth, Akın has since composed concert works and scored several films. In 2025, Akın was nominated for “Best Composer of the Future” at the Cannes World Film Festival for her original score for award-winning film The Balloon (2025). Recent commissions include new work that was recently premiered in New York City for Ensemble Ipse, and newmusic for Confluence Ballet Company for the Spring 2026 season. Akın produces and publishes electronic music in addition to writing for film, chamber ensembles, and symphonic orchestras. She lives with her husband, two children, and dog in Pittsburgh, PA.

Indigo Knecht, Self-Destruction at its Finest, is a composer, tubist, and educator fascinated with the challenges people face as they navigate this world. Through a synthesis of contemporary classical music and rock & roll, Indigo explores themes such as environmentalism, mental illness, and self-realization. Indigo has a BM in Composition from Bowling Green State University and a MM in Composition from University of Michigan. They are currently in their fourth year at University of Miami pursuing a DMA in Composition under the guidance of Dr. Dorothy Hindman. Their multimedia installation, “The Chanting of Coral Reefs: Bringing Awareness to the Endangerment of Coral Reefs Through the Sonification of Settling Larvae,” received the 2024 Presser Foundation Graduate Award. After graduation, Indigo intends on teaching music theory and composition at the university level while continuing to develop expansive compositions that bring awareness to issues in our world with groundbreaking technology.