The International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) is thrilled to announce the winners of its 2025 Search for New Music Competition. The competition recognizes the accomplishments of IAWM member composers and fosters IAWM’s goal of increasing awareness of the musical contributions of women. IAWM hopes that performers around the world will see this as a resource for their own concert programming. This year we received 106 total and 92 qualified and accepted submissions.

 

2025 Ruth Anderson Commission Prize ($1000)

Sponsored by the Beva Eastman Endowment

Commission for a new sound installation with electroacoustic music.

 

Winner: Indigo Knecht, USA – The Chanting of Choral Reefs

Indigo Knecht 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 third 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, with the premiere set for April 2025. After graduating in 2025, 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.

2025 Katy Abbott Prize ($500) 

 Sponsored by Australian composer, Katy Abbott, for a large chamber work (9+ instruments) and/or orchestral works; may include works featuring soloists (vocal or instrumental).

Winner: : Inga Chinilina – Between the Waves

 

Inga Chinilina is a multimedia composer with concert pieces ranging from solo to orchestral compositions, alongside works for dance, film, and installations. She sees music as an act of translation, a concept she explores in both her academic and creative work. Inga’s research explores how cultural context shapes our perception and representation of auditory experiences by analyzing how composers evoke sounds from our everyday lives within their compositions. In her creative practice, Inga transforms personal stories into sonic expressions, reflecting a wide range of societal issues, including immigration, womanhood, and the environment. Inga’s music has been performed by ensembles such as the Jack Quartet, ICE, Dal Niente, and Talea, and featured nationally and internationally at festivals including the Composers Conference, Zeitströme Tage für aktuelle Musik, ClarinetFest in Dublin, and the Japan Percussion Association Festival. Inga’s work has been recognized with awards and commissions, including winning the Flute New Music Competition, the Prisms Festival, and an upcoming Fromm Foundation commission, set to be presented in 2027 with the Switch Ensemble.

 

Between the Waves is a musical exploration of conversations occurring within the ocean’s depths, featuring a large ensemble that mimics and transforms the sounds of marine life. The piece draws inspiration from the songs of Humpback and Southern Right Whales, which have been transcribed from the field recordings of the Watkins Sea Mammal Archive. The composition opens with a moaning tam-tam, reminiscent of the haunting calls of whales. Throughout the piece, the bass clarinet introduces ethereal and mysterious siren calls, blending with the ensemble to create a surreal auditory landscape. The cello enhances the portrayal of the ocean’s soundscape with a seagull effect. Deep within this sonic tapestry, crotales add a unique element. Suspended in water, the crotales lower their pitch, producing a faint moaning sound and symbolizing submersion in the undersea world. Between the Waves extends beyond a mere imitation of nature; it serves as a contemplation on the indirect consequences of human activity on marine life, and invites listeners to reflect on the beauty and fragility of ocean ecosystems.

 

2025 Miriam Gideon Prize ($500)

Sponsored by Lucille Field Goodman, to a composer at least 50 years of age for a work for solo voice & 1-5 instruments.

Winner: Rami Levin, USA, This Much and More

Rami Levin received her B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. in composition from the University of California, San Diego, and a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Chicago. Her catalog includes works for chamber ensembles, chorus, and orchestra, which have been recorded and performed internationally.  She has received commissions from Chicago Symphony Orchestra clarinetist, John Yeh, the Morley Wind Group in London, Chicago Pro Musica, His Majestie’s Clerkes, Chicago Choral Artists, Quintet Attacca, and the Rembrandt Chamber Players, among others.

While living in Chicago she served as president of American Women Composers, Midwest and founded Lake Forest Lyrica, a chamber music series featuring renowned ensembles in Chicago. Levin served as Chair of the Department of Music, Associate Dean of Faculty and Composer-in-Residence at Lake Forest College. The recipient of a Fulbright award in 2008, she spent a semester teaching and composing in Brazil at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro. She moved to Brazil in 2010 where she taught and worked as a composer until 2017. After her return to the U.S. she joined the board of the Women Composers Festival of Hartford and was elected President in 2018, a position she held until 2023.

 

This Much and More is a setting of three poems by American women poets. It was commissioned by soprano Michelle Fiertek, who premiered the work at the Women Composers Festival of Hartford in 2018. It was recorded in 2023 by Amy Broadbent, soprano and Kuang-Hao Huang, piano and recently released on an album titled Silk Apples: Chamber Music by Rami Levin – on the Acis label.

 

 

2025 Libby Larsen Prize ($500)

Sponsored by Libby Larsen, to a composer who is currently enrolled in school for a work in any medium.

Winner: Rain (Yurui) Hou, China, Monsoon (梅雨)  

In five years, composer Rain Hou sees herself in a cozy apartment in New York City’s Soho, walking a Bernese Mountain Dog, and living in musical creation. At the age of 20, she is currently in her sophomore year in New York City, majoring in creative writing and minoring in music at Columbia University. She also studies composition with Melinda Wagner at the Juilliard School. Her works have been selected as the finalist of the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Competition, the second-place winner of the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival Quartet Composition Competition 2024, and the first-place winner of the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival 2024 Composition Contest. While she’s soaking up the intense learning of her second year, her go-to activity is spending Saturdays at Village Vanguard listening to jazz. Feeding from her diverse tonal palette, Rain’s music is quirky, kaleidoscopic, and has a big personality. Growing up in a big Chinese city and constantly traveling between the U.S and her hometown, she is constantly inspired by different landscapes. She has written works about the monsoon rainstorms in Shanghai, noises in New York City, and flickering street lamps.

 

Monsoon (梅雨） My birthplace Shanghai is a tearful city. Throughout summer time, the landscape is constantly engulfed by the monsoon seasons, which is characterized by waves and waves of rain accompanied by heavy storms. This piece for Clarinet Trio aims to capture the intensity and ephemerality of this specific weather, which is special to this piece of land. It can be roughly divided into three parts, of which the first a peaceful promenade in fine rain, the second a sudden surge of turbulent wind, and last an almost catastrophic arrival of the storm, which then engulfs the city in a rage.

2025 Pauline Oliveros New Genre Prize ($300)

Sponsored by Claire Chase, for works incorporating  innovative form or style, such as improvisation, multimedia, use of non-traditional notation, open instrumentation, or new performance practices.

Winner:  Elizabeth Jigalin, Australia, Ear Buds

Elizabeth Jigalin is a composer, artist and performer based in Sydney, Australia. In her work, she is often drawn to explore site specific music-making, interactive play spaces, and found materials. Guided by curiosity, Elizabeth collaborates and creates across art-forms. Elizabeth’s music has premiered at festivals around the world including Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Biennale of Sydney, EDGE Inner West, Extended Play, BIFEM, Rouse Hills Psychedelia, Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Women of Noise and Australia’s Silent Film Festival. At present, she is Composer-in-Residence for Voices of Women and one of the Composers-in-Residence for Moorambilla Voices Mirray Ensemble. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Sydney Youth Orchestras, Bundanon Trust, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Bondi Pavillion and minciospace_ (Vienna).

Elizabeth is the founder of creative music collective the music box project who were awarded Excellence for Experimental Music at the 2020 APRA AMCOS/AMC Art Music Awards In 2024, She was the co-festival director of the music box project’s inaugural festival of creative music CUT PASTE PLAY. Elizabeth is grateful to be the recipient of several awards including 2023 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Fund, Ars Musica Australis Scholarship, AAO Mentorship, 1st Prize Centenary of Canberra Composition Competition and 1st Prize Unbound Flute Festival competition.

 

EAR BUDS is a sandpit of 14 scenes for flute and percussion. Each scene zooms in on a different aspect (whether real or imaginary) of ‘percussing’ and ‘fluting’. To create each scene of sound, I filtered these various aspects through a related, personal memory (whether real or imaginary). Via a script-score, EAR BUDS invites the flutist and percussionist to explore skin, sticks, fingers, touch, air, bodies, anatomies (dismembered and new), in-between spaces and their instruments as objects. This work was commissioned by the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund and is dedicated to the incredible iipm project – Phoebe Bognár and Mikołaj Rytowski (who brought the work to life!).

2025 Leah Reid Electroacoustic and Music Technology Prize ($400)

Sponsored by Leah Reid for works of any style and length utilizing music technology, including, but not limited to acousmatic works, electroacoustic pieces, electronic compositions, or pieces featuring electronic instruments. If no score is used, a description of the work should accompany the audio or video submission.

Winner: Shahrzad Talebi, Iran, A Detour, Invalid Light by Mistake

2025 PatsyLu Prize ($500)

Sponsored by Patsy Rogers and Lucille Field Goodman, for new music works in any form or instrumentation by Black and underrepresented women.

Winner: Zhishu Chang, China/USA , Daughters of the Desert      

 

 

Zhishu Chang is a Chinese composer and performer based in Baltimore. Her music—described as meticulous, adventurous, and inclusive—often draws from traditional Chinese influences. Artistically, she seeks to evoke human empathy and raise awareness of self-esteem, the natural environment, and intercultural reflection. Her works have been performed by leading ensembles and artists including JACK Quartet, Talea Ensemble, TAK Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Divertimento Ensemble, Next Ensemble (mixed choir), Beijing Contemporary Soloists, VICE Ensemble (Valencia), Clavino Trio, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, China Huaxia National Orchestra, Alexander Davis and Ryan Muncy (ICE), Irvine Arditti, Li-Chin Li (sheng), and Siqi Tong (erhu). Recent honors include the 2024 American Guild of Organists Commission Award, 2024 BCGS Commission Award, First Prize in the 2022 Peabody DeLillo Competition, and awards from Malta International Composition Competition, Otto Ortmann Prize, and China Conservatory Composition Competition. Her works are published by Schott Music, Modern Press, and Central Conservatory Press. Chang holds a BM from the China Conservatory of Music and an MM from the Peabody Institute. She is currently pursuing a DMA in composition at Peabody, studying with Felipe Lara and Du Yun.

 

Daughters of the Desert for mixed choir and solo soprano draws inspiration from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the existential metaphor of the desert—a place of isolation, clarity, and transformation. The desert becomes a space where the individual confronts the void and the challenge of creating new values beyond inherited morality. The soprano voice represents the conscious narrator, while the choir embodies the subconscious, reflecting the inner tension between tradition and the search for meaning. The work traces Zarathustra’s three metamorphoses of the spirit: the camel, burdened by inherited moral weight; the lion, who rebels and seeks freedom; and the child, who symbolizes rebirth, innocence, and creativity. The Daughters of the Desert emerge as symbols of potential—fragile yet radiant presences born from solitude and clarity. Through layered vocal textures, the piece explores dualities: barrenness and hope, desolation and vision. It is a meditation on existential solitude and the struggle to redefine one’s values in a world stripped of certainty.

 

2025 Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble Prize ($500)

For a Jazz composition of any duration for small ensemble to big band (4-17 instruments). 

Winner: Teresa (Naphatraphee) Um, Thia, Phonophobia      

Teresa (Naphatraphee) Um is a jazz composer, arranger, and guitarist from Bangkok, Thailand. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging at the University of North Texas under the mentorship of Professor Richard DeRosa, where she was awarded the Composition and Arranging Student Scholarship. In 2025, she received the David Baker Prize as the winner of the Bridges Composition Competition at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute and earned a DownBeat Student Music Award for Outstanding Graduate Big Band Arrangement. Initially recognized as a dedicated jazz guitarist, she won first place in the solo division at the Thailand International Jazz Conference (TIJC) in 2023. Teresa continues to build on her background as she develops her unique voice as a composer and arranger.

 

Phonophobia—the fear of loud sounds—serves as both the title and emotional core of this piece. It explores the tension between chaos and calm through sharp dynamic contrasts, sudden shifts, and moments of quiet reflection, capturing the emotional impact of sonic overwhelm.

2025 Alex Shapiro Prize ($500 and mentorship/consultation from Alex Shapiro)

Sponsored by Alex  Shapiro, for a work of any duration for large ensemble wind band requiring a conductor, with or without  soloist, acoustic or electroacoustic, published or as yet unpublished.

Winner: Jia Yi Lee, Singapore,  betwixt and between

Jia Yi Lee is a Singaporean composer whose music explores sonic and spatial environments through movement, gesture and choreography. Inspired by natural phenomena and processes, her music challenges traditional notions of sound and creates imaginative, colorful sound worlds that captivate listeners.

Jia Yi’s music has been performed by the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, Philharmonic Wind Orchestra, Duo Tarenna, Trio SurPlus, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Ensemble Linea, Ensemble Signal, Talea Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Ictus, Tacet(i) Ensemble, soloists from Ensemble Musikfabrik, Toolbox Percussion, Carton Jaune, Duo Stump-Linshalm, International Contemporary Ensemble, and heard in festivals such as the Asia+ Festival, WASBE International Conference, IntAct Festival, Toolbox International Creative Academy, Académie Voix Nouvelles Royaumont, Mizzou International Composers Festival, June in Buffalo, Etchings Festival, soundSCAPE Festival and Asian Composers League Festival. She has been awarded the Otto Ortmann Prize (2021), and 2nd and 3rd Prizes in the Prix D’Été Competition (2022, 2020). Jia Yi is currently a DMA Candidate at Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Composition at Shenandoah Conservatory, and an Adjunct Faculty in Music Theory at Peabody Institute. She holds a MM from Peabody Institute and a BM from National University of Singapore.

 

betwixt and between explores the liminal spaces between noise and pitch, and transitions between harmonies (in just intonation, 12-tone and 24-tone equal temperament). Meaning “neither here nor there”, this piece is an encapsulation of many mixed feelings: as a Singaporean spending many years studying abroad in the United States, living in between two cities; and as a trumpeter growing up learning music with the wind band, but only writing for this medium for the first time. This piece is my attempt at bridging my love of unconventional sounds with the conventional wind band medium, about exploring the uncomfortable, the unstable and the unexpected. betwixt and between is commissioned by and dedicated to Philharmonic Wind Orchestra (Singapore), and conductor Dr Leonard Tan, without whom this piece would not have been possible.

 

Merit of Distinction: Mieke J. Doezema, Behind Closed Doors

Mieke J Doezema is a “swiss army knife” teacher, having experience in all grade levels K-12 and university teaching orchestra, choir, band, and assisting in undergraduate theory and aural skills since receiving her undergraduate degree in 2020. While teaching in the Northshore school district from 2021-2023 as an orchestra and choir director, she continued to write music under the mentorship of Reena Esmail and participate in workshops and music festivals around the world such as Seattle Opera’s Creation Lab and Mostly Modern Festival in Netherlands. Doezema now pursues her Master’s in Music Composition at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, participating in dialogues and collaborations in intercultural composition and examining the synthesis between martial arts and music through research and creative projects.

 

Behind Closed Doors was commissioned in 2024 by Kathryn Barrett, head band director at Central Valley High School in Spokane Washington. Her vision was to create a vibraphone concerto to be performed with her students and an incredibly talented percussionist, Rosie Cerquone. With three, strong-willed professional women on the project, we agreed the piece called for feminist themes and I decided to draw on my recent internship as a research assistant for the Boulanger Initiative- an organization whose mission is to promote education and advocacy surrounding women and gender marginalized composers. During a meeting, a colleague described her experience in the classical performance world and shared that her subsequent pursuit of research was due to a realization that she didn’t want to spend her whole life knocking on doors that slammed in her face. This statement resonated with me and found its way into the narrative story of Behind Closed Doors where the soloist fights to be heard above the layers of ensemble voices. Throughout the piece, the push and pull between the ensemble and the soloist evolves from oppositional to complimentary dialogues, ending with a triumphant last word from the soloist.

2025 Judith Lang Zaimont Prize ($400)

Sponsored by Judith Lang Zaimont, for an extended instrumental  composition—large solo or chamber works—by a composer at least 30 years old whose music has not  yet been recorded or published. 

 

 

 

2025 Choral/Vocal Ensemble Prize ($500)

Sponsored by Andrea Clearfield  for the compositions of any duration for choral or vocal ensemble

Winner: Anne Cawrse, All Flesh is Fire

Anne Cawrse is inspired by stories, art, nuance, and the fragility of the human condition. Her artistic practice is built around connection between the composer, the performer and the audience, and a belief that music has the power to express the inexpressible. Based in Adelaide, she composes for orchestral, band, choral, and chamber groups, as well as solo instruments and voice. She is highly sought after as a teacher and mentor and is developing an esteemed reputation as a curator and programmer.

Cawrse has been commissioned by many of Australia’s leading orchestras, ensembles and performers, and her music is regularly performed throughout Australia. Her music has been recorded by the Australian String Quartet, Adelaide Chamber Singers, Benaud Trio, Claire Edwardes and Emily Granger, Celia Craig, the Australian Vocal Ensemble and the Bowerbird Collective. Her debut album Advice to A Girl was released by ABC Classic in 2021. A multiple award winner and finalists at the APRA/AMC Art Music Awards, Cawrse has received the Albert H Maggs Award, a Prelude Composer residency, and was a finalist in the Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize (2022) and the Australian Women in Music Awards (2023).

 

All Flesh is Fire, a choral work in seven parts, is a meditation on memory, aging, and the passage of time. There is an enchanting beauty in Llewellyn’s words: her niece Annabel’s claim that “the humble is the most beautiful” certainly rings true throughout. Colour, light, and texture all play an important role in the imagery used in the poem, where all living things are imbued with divinity and spirit, and the temporary nature of life is celebrated rather than mourned. My favourite images are the green chair under the olive tree, snow-like petals drifting through the quiet garden, and the white-net ‘angels’ inhabiting the fruit trees. Both solemn and whimsical, I’ve endeavoured to bring a sacred quality to some of the music, while keeping it wholly embedded in the real, natural world. The six snapshots drawn out of Llewellyn’s poem are accompanied by the words of Hildegarde of Bingen – The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. The text and music weave their way through different combinations of voices, taking us on a journey that explores reverence for small moments, the numinocity of nature, and a peace that is found in solitude.

 

 

Honorable Mention: Riley Feretti, Deep Sea Cables

 

Riley Ferretti is a composer, computer musician, and vocalist whose work explores human connection through choral, instrumental, and electronic music. She draws inspiration from various sources, including poetry, nature, and her personal experiences. She has received recognition from numerous competitions and organizations, including the KMEA Collegiate Composition Competition, the Chorus Austin Composer’s Competition Young Composers Division, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), the FSU Festival of New Music, the Performing Media Festival, 88.7FM’s Synthdactyl Program, and the Washington Post. Riley holds a B.M. in Music Composition from the University of Louisville and later earned a Master’s in Music Composition at the University of Florida, focusing on the integration of body, voice, and technology through concepts such as cybernetic feedback loops, posthumanism, identity, durational performance, and the body as source material.

 

Deep Sea Cables

The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar,
Down to the dark, to the utter dark, where the blind white sea-snakes are.
There is no sound, no echo of sound, in the deserts of the deep,
Or the great grey level plains of ooze where the shell-burred cables creep.

Here in the womb of the world, here on the tie-ribs of earth
Words, and the words of men, flicker and flutter and beat,
Warning, sorrow and gain, salutation and mirth,
For a Power troubles the Still that has neither voice nor feet.

They have wakened the timeless Things; they have killed their father Time;
Joining hands in the gloom, a league from the last of the sun.
Hush! Men talk to-day o’er the waste of the ultimate slime,
And a new Word runs between: whispering, “Let us be one!”
-Rudyard Kipling