MusicTeacherGifts.com 10th Annual Music Competition, Ages 17-18
2023 Compositions presented for Ages Over 16 years - Distinguished Judges are Daniel Felsenfeld and Mengmeng Wang
1st Place - Justinas Zlabys, 2nd Place - Matthew Mailman, Third Place - Verena Trollman
Honorable Mentions: Frederick Biddix, Abby Harris, Julian Raheb, Atticus Renault, Samuel Shorts, Jill Wilson,
Find ages 10 to 14 HERE, and ages 15 to 16 HERE.
Compositions are listed in alphabetical order of composers.
Frederick Biddix, “Piano Concerto No. 4”
I am a 17 year old composer from Texas. I mostly enjoy writing for orchestra. I've been composing for a little over 4 years now.
Tyler Coughran, “The Last Leaves of Fall”
Abby Harris, “Chlorophyllament”
Abby Harris is a seventeen year old composer and pianist who lives in New York City. She is a high school senior and a composition student of Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. She additionally studies composition with Kevin James in the ACO composition program.
Zachary Jarvis, “Farewell Fanfare”
Zachary Jarvis is a junior at Athenian High School in Danville, CA. He focuses on telling stories through melody and often writes programmatically. He’s been playing piano since he was six and composing since he was seven. In his free time, Zach enjoys taking dance classes and working with his school's robotics team.
Matthew Mailman, “Backwards Letters”, 2nd Place
Matthew Mailman is a composer from Hershey, PA. His first foray into writing music was in 2021, during the pandemic, and he began studies with his current composition teacher, Greg Strohman, a year later.
Being a trumpet player as well, Matthew has participated in the 2021 and 2022 National Trumpet Competitions as well as been a member of the 2021 NAfME All-National Concert Band. He currently also serves as the trumpet section leader of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra and Harrisburg Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Matthew currently attends Hershey High School and will continue his education at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where he plans to major in music composition and cognitive science.
Julian Raheb, “Expanding Time”
17-year-old Julian Raheb is a pianist, composer, artist, photographer, published poet, 2-time piano competition winner at NJPAC, 12-time Arts Connection competition winner, Scholastic Arts and Writing and Silver National Gold Medalist (Art) and winner of 9 Gold Keys and 14 Silver Keys. His artwork has been on exhibit at The Met Museum 5 years in a row. He attends Frank Sinatra School of Arts in NYC and Manhattan School of Music for composition and piano. He’s been featured on Fox 5 NY by 30-time Emmy winning anchor Ernie Anastos and had a full-page feature in The Brooklyn Paper. His compositions have been premiered by The Regina Opera, The American Composers Orchestra, the NY Youth Symphony, Mannes and Manhattan School of Music. He is a Recanati-Kaplan art scholar. Recent awards include 1st and 2nd place winner Long Island Composers Alliance 2021-2022, Boston Steinway competition finalist, 2022, Emerging Composer Recognition by the Tribeca New Music Board of Directors, 2022, 2nd place winner in The Anselmo International Youth Piano Competition, 2/7/2022, Finalist, National Young Composers Challenge for Expanding Time string quartet, 2021, 2nd place winner in the Crescendo International music competition for piano, 2023.
Atticus Renault, “Fantasie in F#”
Atticus Renault began studying piano at age 6, but took a hiatus of several years to pursue interests outside of music. During the pandemic, Atticus rediscovered a love for classical music, in particular the romantic masters such as Chopin, Liszt, and Scriabin. Under the guidance of Dickinson College music professor Greg Strohman, Atticus continues to develop his performance and compositional skills with inspiration drawn from these composers. Staples of romanticism like wide dynamic and tonal range define his pieces, as he continues to explore the orchestral sound of the piano.
Atticus is currently a junior at Carlisle High School and plans on studying mathematics in college.
Louisa Emilia Schneider, ”Bolang”
Samuel Shorts, “Crawl to the Sea”
Samuel Shorts is a 17-year-old composer who would someday like to score for film and video games. He first got into music when he learned finger style guitar. After hearing guitarists such as Tommy Emmanuel and Leo Kottke, Samuel began writing his own instrumental music for guitar. He tried his best at songwriting, but eventually decided he couldn’t write lyrics, so he moved on to orchestral music. His favorite composers are J.S. Bach, John Williams, Tchaikovsky, and Ennio Morricone. His ultimate goal as a composer is to write a piece of music, that upon being heard once, is never forgotten- such as Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, Beethoven’s Fifth, or just about anything by John Williams. He holds melody in the highest priority and finds atonality to be an assault on the ears. He has no formal music education of any sort, but he will be attending college to get a Bachelor’s in Composition.
Verena Trollmann, “Eveline’s Dream”, 3rd Place
Verena Trollman is from Munich, Germany enjoying the current year as an exchange student in the U.S. She attends Shawnee Heights High School as a senior. Verena spontaneously improvises and composes at the piano and was pleased to be recognized by the http://www.musicteachergifts.com youth composition competition. She performs piano with the high school jazz band, the orchestra and the band. She has received superior ratings as a soloist and chamber musician by the International Professional Pianists Association (IPPA) and at Regional and State Music Festivals. She earned a superior score on the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) Level 8 Piano Performance Exam spring 2023. A well-rounded individual, she also has participated on both high school cross country and track teams preferring 400 and 800 meter runs. Verena placed in regional and state forensics competitions offering humorous interpretations. She will continue math and music studies when she returns to Germany. Her private piano teacher in Lawrence, Kansas is Linda Mannering.
Jill Wilson, “Adrift”
Music has been in my life for as long as I can remember. I have always loved to sing and write songs, but I never thought of composing as something that I could actually do. I joined choir in 6th grade, and it was then that my love for music really flourished. I continued choir throughout middle school and now high school, but I started composing near the end of my freshman year. I had very little experience playing piano, or any instrument for that matter, but I taught myself how to play so that I could compose. I quickly realized that this was something that I wanted to pursue. I would describe my compositional style as very cinematic. I love telling a story through music and using the emotion to guide me through writing a piece. I attended the Wildflower Composer festival in 2022 and had an incredible experience with everyone there. I am currently a junior in high school (soon to be senior) and I am planning to go to college for composition.
Ingrid Yang, “The Verge”
Justinas Zlabys, “A Warren of Allusion”, 1st Place
Justinas Zlabys enjoys a pre professional career as a Violist, Composer, and Jazz Pianist. He has performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Boston Opera House, Jordan Hall, and Paliesius in Lithuania as a soloist. He began his musical education at Music Haven, a non-profit organization that provides tuition fee music lessons and classes to inner city kids. Justinas began playing chamber music in the summer of 2015 and has not stopped since. He has participated in many summer programs such as the BUTI String Quartet workshop, ENCORE String Academy, YOLA National Festival with Gustavo Dudamel, NEMC Composition Intensive, Faulkner Chamber Music Festival, and Point Counter Point. Justinas attends Walnut Hill School for the Arts and NEC prep, where he takes private viola lessons with Daniel Getz of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and where he is principal viola of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. Justinas began to study jazz piano in his sophomore year and began to play in bands at Walnut Hill and at NEC, he is currently a student of David Zoffer. For his solo jazz piano improvisation “Kind of Indigo” Justinas was the 1st prize winner of the solo piano category of the MSMU High School competition. As a composer Justinas has seen his music performed at Walnut Hill and the Unitarian Society of New Haven by the Haven String Quartet. He is currently studying composition with Dr. William Cooper. Justinas Zlabys will be attending The Juilliard School under Melinda Wagner in the fall of 2023.
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