2026 Music Gifts by Becky
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Presenting Results for our 13th Annual Youth Composition Competition
2026 Compositions for Ages 15 and 16 Entries
1st Place, Ho Sen Ken Xiao; 2nd Place, Oliver Xu Chu Zhang; 3rd Place, Jae Young Kim
Judges are Murphy Severtson and Mengmeng Wang
Find compositions from ages 17 and 18 HERE, and from ages 10 to 14 HERE.
Ages 15 and 16 Compositions - listed below by composer in alphabetical order.
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Emeric Almonte, Age 15, “Trauma Chamber”
Austin Bodkin, Age 15, “Elegy For A Fool”
Sophia Chang, Age 15 , “Metanoia”
Amy Chen, “Cinderella’s Light”
Amy Chen is a junior at Winston Churchill High School. She is passionate about music composition and studies under the guidance of Yiming Wu. With six years of piano experience and a commitment to the violin since 2016, Amy actively participates in MCYO orchestra and is concertmaster of her school orchestra. Notably, she was selected to the 2024 All State Orchestra. Beyond her musical pursuits, Amy indulges in her creative side through interests in fashion design and drawing.
Alexander Frey, “Symphony No. 10 in C Minor V “
Alexander Frey, age 15, started the cello at age 7 and is currently a student of National Symphony Orchestra cellist James Lee. He has won awards at a number of music competitions, including: 1st place, International Music Competition Oxford Grand Prize Virtuoso; 1st place, Charleston International Music Competition; 2nd place, Great Composers Competition; 3rd place, American Virtuoso International Music Competition; Honorable Mention, Enkor International Music Competition; 3rd place, Glory International Music Competition. He is co-regional director for the Back to Bach Project and was selected as a cellist for the Virginia All-State Orchestra, Virginia Senior Regional Orchestra, and Assistant Principal Cello for the Senior District Honor Orchestra. He runs cross country and track and is a member of his high school’s Model UN team.
Jaeyoung Kim, Age 16 , 3rd Place, “Day Off”
Lillian Liang, Age 16, “Arendelle”
Nathaniel Lee, Age 16, “Journey To Nowhere”
Nathaniel Lee is a 16-year-old composer and cellist from Davis, CA. He grew up learning piano and eventually transitioned to cello at age 9. He has enjoyed writing music for fun and sharing his pieces with his friends, and began writing in earnest in junior high.
He is currently studying cello with Carrie Miller and has received support and guidance in music composition from Trey Makley and Ryan Suleiman, as well as from his school orchestra directors, Greg Brucker and Angelo Moreno. He won 1st place in Pacific Musical Society’s 2024 competition for his composition Ode on Melancholy, and his work Inferiority was selected to be showcased at the Music Composition Walking Gallery for California Music Education Association conference. This summer, he will be at Boston Conservatory’s High School Composition Intensive at Berklee College of Music.
Nathaniel has drawn inspiration from a range of different composers and styles, for example, using dissonant textures from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring to write a musical ‘panic attack’ for Inferiority. He has often drawn inspiration from personal experiences and struggles for works such as Inferiority and a scherzo form Journey to Nowhere. Recently, he has been attempting to expand his harmonic palette, as evidenced by his latest string quartet work String Quartet in C.
Outside of music, Nathaniel enjoys competing in math and science competitions, being heavily involved in his school’s Science Olympiad and Math (Mu Alpha Theta) Clubs.
Isabella Li, “Chasing the Clouds, the Dreams, and the Light”
Isabella is a junior from Lexington, Massachusetts. She has been learning composing for a year. Other than that, she has played the dulcimer (yangqin) for 8 years, the piano for 12 years, and a percussionist in Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Outside of music, Isabella enjoys competitive and research math, linguistics, deep learning, drinking coffee, and singing Japanese pop songs.
Maychen Liu, Age 16, “Three Rythmical Studies”
Lunaria Naill-Alderink, Age 15, “Snowflakes Dancing With The Winter Winds”
Noah Shukla, Age 16, “The Little Match Girl”
Gunes Sunar, “Whispers in the Mirror”
Gunes Sunar, 16, is a junior at Ward Melville High School in Setauket, New York. He began piano lessons at age five and developed a passion for composing original music and is currently a student of Daniel Fogel. At age seven, Gunes won his first composition award in the OhioMTNA Western District Composition Contest (2017). As a composer, he has received recognition in several prestigious composition competitions, including the International Piano Composition Contest (2018), the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs (OFMC, 2019), OhioMTNA (2021), and the International Youth Music Competition (IYMC, 2024 & 2025). To further refine his technical expertise, Gunes is currently enrolled in the Penn State Young Composers Institute, where he is completing an extensive course in advanced composition techniques. As a performer, Gunes has participated in OFMC festivals and NYSSMA Piano Solo Festivals. Beyond his musical pursuits, Gunes is committed to both community service and academic excellence.
Alexander Whitten, “Lost in Darkness”
Alexander Taishi Whitten (15) began piano at age 8 and composing by 11. He has been studying piano with Mr. Daniel Nagy in Pensacola, Florida since 2023. In 2024, he performed the Haydn Piano Concerto No. 11 with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, and he debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2025. Alex has received multiple awards for compositions as well, including the MTNA Composition Competition for the state of Florida, and the FFMC Junior Composers Competition. His motivation to perform and compose music is to bring joy to God and others, and he is often asked to play for services at local churches. Alex admires the incomparable Japanese pianist/composer, Mr. Hayato Sumino.
Ho Sen Ken Xiao, 1st Place, “A Flock Descends into the Paradoxical”
Ho Sen Ken Xiao is a violinist and composer currently studying at the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA). As a composer, he is a fellow of the LA Philharmonic Composer Fellowship and a private student of Yiming Wu. He has also received instruction from other composers including Andrew Norman and Thomas Kotcheff. Ho Sen Ken is the alternate apprentice composer for NYO-USA 2026 and won third place in the the International Eduards Balsys Composer Competition, which included the premiere of “In Pieces” for flute, marimba, and piano. His orchestral work “driftwoods” is programmed to be premiered at the Segrestrom Center for the Arts in May 2026 by the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Caden Yao, Age 16, “Motivation”
Enoch Yu, Light Prism
Enoch Yu is a high school sophomore whose compositions often fuse elements from nature with abstract motifs. Performed at various concerts and festivals, his music has received multiple accolades including Honorable Mention in the 2025 MTNA New Jersey Competition, second place in the 2025 NJFMC Junior Composers Competition, a fifth-degree award in the Golden Key International Music Festival for Composition, and first prize in the International DONNE IN MUSICA Festival for two consecutive years. He studies composition with Yiming Wu and resides in New Jersey, USA.
Oliver Xuchu Zhang, 2nd Place, “Two Brief Festivities”
I'm from Hong Kong and am currently 15 years old and am in Year 11 (Grade 10). I play piccolo and flute in the Symphony Orchestra of the Hong Kong Metropolitan Youth Orchestra as well as various in-school and inter-school pickup ensembles. I find composition to be a fun pastime which allows me to explore my love of music, engage in discussion with like-minded people, find excuses to listen to more music, and overall just make day-to-day life more interesting and enjoyable.
