Division 1 (ages 22-35)

CONGRATULATIONS!
Will Stackpole
First Prize winner
2026 Young Composer Competition

Congratulations to composer Will Stackpole! His string quartet Here Without Trying has won the national Tribeca New Music Division 1 Young Composer Competition for ages 22-35.

In the past decade Will Stackpole has emerged as an exciting new voice in American concert music. He is notable for his visionary approach to orchestral music, having won the 2019 Rudolph Nissim prize for his work fEED, alongside his rich and enigmatic output for soloists and smaller groups.

Stackpole's sound often transforms from piece to piece, depending on its theme or aims. The result is a style and language that has been referred to by many as teetering on the edge of tonality in the most fascinating ways. It has been called “Lively…interesting…”and possessing a “savage charm” (New York Times). A review for Chamber Music America noted, “(While others) centered their experimentation around questions of ‘what’  and ‘which,’ Will Stackpole…dove headlong into ‘ if ’.” This, coupled with his kaleidoscopic sense of color, makes for music unlike much else today.

Stackpole's background is somewhat unique among his classical colleagues. Raised in a small working-class town in NH with little access to the concert world, Stackpole began his musical life as an electric guitarist and audio engineer prior to his career as a composer. While working in New York as an orchestrator and composer for television and theater, he studied with Justin Dello Joio before enrolling at the Juilliard School for his master’s and doctoral degrees.

Will Stackpole's music has been performed across the United States by notable musicians like the American Composers Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, Attacca Quartet, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and Benjamin Hochman, among many others.

As the First Prize recipient of the 2026 Division 1 Young Composer Competition, Will is to receive a $1,000 award, and his score will be performed both on the Tribeca New Music 2026-2027 Festival in NYC, and at The Checkout in Chicago, Ill. Stay tuned for details!

Honorable Mentions & Merit Awards for Division 1

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this national competition. In addition to the first prize composition, Tribeca New Music wishes to acknowledge some of the other exceptional works that were entered:

• The Honorable Mention category recognizes the top tier of compositions that were in contention to win first prize.
• The Merit Award category recognizes those who have shown great promise with their entries.

Honorable Mention

Carlos Bandera for Spirare IV

Nicolas Chuaqui for Vox Clamantis in Nemore

Ben Morris for Stomping Ground

Benjamin Rieke for Upward Mobility A

Benjamin Rieke for Outpatient Fragments

Merit Award

Elise Arancio for Rew(ire)d

Hansol Choi San-Joh for Solo-Accordion

Cameron Hagaman for Yellow Rose

Joshua Muetzel for Cable Car Canter

Michael Reardon for Metamorphosis

Michael Rosin for Igneous

Ethan Soledad for Poems from Angel Island

Gabriel Zucker for How to Keep, Forever

Division 2 (ages 21 and under)

CONGRATULATIONS!
Luca Pasquini
First Prize winner
2026 Young Composer Competition

Congratulations to composer Luca Pasquini!  His duo for two violins, in a past life, has won the national Tribeca New Music Division 2 Young Composer Competition for ages 21 and younger.

Luca Pasquini is a NYC-based composer, pianist, and sound artist. His work explores the complexity of human emotions through themes of the natural, supernatural, and digital worlds, often meditating on memory and connection. Luca’s work spans various mediums, from the concert music stage to music for dance and film. His work has received recognition from ASCAP, the YoungArts Foundation, the National Young Composers Challenge, and the Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards.

Recently, he was commissioned by LA-based all-star chamber group Salastina and by NYC-based dance company Eryc Taylor Dance for its new project “The Knowing” and was a recipient of the 2025 ArtzEnter Emerging Composer Completion Grant for a new chamber orchestra work for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.

Luca has also collaborated with esteemed ensembles including Hub New Music, Unheard-of Ensemble, Playground Ensemble, Dither, and Chamber Project St. Louis and is currently in residency with the New York University Orchestra. Luca is pursuing a Bachelor of Music at the New York University Steinhardt School. His mentors have included Michael Gordon, Robert Honstein, Justin Dello Joio, and Leanna Kirchoff.

As the First Prize recipient of the 2026 Division 1 Young Composer Competition, Luca will receive a $1,000 award, and his score will be performed both on the Tribeca New Music 2026-2027 Festival in NYC, and at ACM’s The Checkout in Chicago, Ill. Stay tuned for details!

Honorable Mentions & Emerging Composer Awards for Division 2

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this national competition. In addition to the first prize composition, Tribeca New Music wishes to acknowledge some of the other exceptional works that were entered:

• The Honorable Mention category recognizes the top tier of compositions that were in contention to win first prize.
• The Emerging Composer category recognizes those who have shown great promise with their entries.

Honorable Mention

 Chase Morrison for Stroll and Drive

Calvin Rice for Mindcrank—Dancebreak

Emerging Composers

Ian Barnett for F Is for Fantasy

Airlea Deutscher for A Turn with the Sun

Jaime Garcia-Anoveros for ENCADENADO

Clark Haygood for Based on a True Story

Elisa Johnson for See Us Too

Woojin Lee for String Quartet No. 2

Woojin Lee for 층간소음

Nate Leslie for STACKED DECK

Ian Lin for Between Tempests

Cynthia Liu for Tales of the Beyond

Cody James Nakagawa for The Valley

Elian Rangel for Concierto de Colores

Ignacio Rosado for Trigger Studies

Piper Rutman for Bone of Contention

Winston Schneider for Unstable Utterances

Ian Tam for Scent Variations

Elias Valle for Mirror Dance