2026 COMPOSITION CONTEST
WINNER: Luis Quintana, Songs of Sun-Dried Scent
Left Coast Chamber Ensemble is thrilled to perform Songs of Sun-Dried Scent during our 2027-28 season.
LISTEN to the winning piece, commissioned and premiered by Ensemble ALMAVIVA.
Born in Puerto Rico, Luis Quintana is an internationally prized composer who develops his work in France and abroad in the field of contemporary classical music, extending the frontiers of his musical universe from instrumental and vocal music to acousmatic pieces and sound installations. Drawing on Caribbean soundscapes and echoes of diverse practices, his music inhabits a space where tradition and nature dissolve into sound — blending pulse with texture and swaying between popular and savant.
He began his composition studies at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music before continuing in Paris at the École Normale de Musique, the Paris National Conservatory (CNSMDP), and IRCAM. Since then, his music has received distinction in international competitions, winning first prizes at the New Classics International Composition Competition in Moscow, the Iannis Xenakis International Electronic Music Competition in Greece, the Salvatore Martirano Award in the United States, and the Grand Prize of the Ise- Shima Art Committee in Japan, along with a few other acknowledgments. He has also been recognised with distinctions including the Pierre Cardin Prize of the Académie des Beaux-Arts (2022) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2024).
His work has found its way onto global stages, with performances at leading festivals such as Festival Manifest in France, the Born Creative Festival in Japan, and MATA Festival in New York. Collaborations include ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain and L’Instant Donné in France, as well as the Victory Players in the United States. His music has been presented in distinguished venues around the world, from C-Lab, Taipei National Concert Hall, and Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre to the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris (Centre Pompidou), ISSUE Project Room in New York, and Boston Symphony Hall.
Honorable MentionS:
Roger Zare
(Re)Inventions
LISTEN
Roger Zare has been praised for his “enviable grasp of orchestration” (New York Times) and for writing music with “formal clarity and an alluringly mercurial surface.” Zare currently serves as assistant professor of composition and theory at Appalachian State University. Often inspired by science, nature, and mythology, his works have been performed across the United States and on six continents by such musicians and ensembles as the American Composers Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva, the Sinta Quartet, violinist Cho-Liang Lin, and clarinetists Alexander Fiterstein and Andy Hudson. An award winning composer, Zare has received recognition from ASCAP, BMI, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Copland House, and many others. Zare holds degrees from the University of Michigan, the Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Southern California. His teachers include Bright Sheng, Michael Daugherty, Kristin Kuster, Paul Schoenfield, Christopher Theofanidis, and Derek Bermel.
Dylan Tyree
An Exhibition of Questionable Zoology
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Dylan Tyree is a Los Angeles-based composer, cellist, and arts administrator whose musical practice lives at the crossroads of tradition and rebellion.
As a competition-winning composer, Dylan’s music has been presented by festivals and institutions throughout the United States and Canada. He approaches composition as an exploratory and collaborative process, using improvisation to uncover narrative direction and architecture. This emphasis on spontaneity and live storytelling inspires him to write music that invites listeners into an active, shared experience. He is a 2026 recipient of the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.
Dylan has built a multifaceted career as a performer. He appears as a soloist on Christopher Tin’s album Song Offerings (Decca Gold, 2025), available on all major streaming platforms. He is a member of the Empyrean Quartet and plays electric cello in the cover band Duality. Passionate about bringing new music to life, he has worked closely with composers/artists including Eric Whitacre, Christopher Tin, Veronika Krausas, Roger Holland, and Ola Gjeilo. He is scheduled to tour with Brad Mehldau, Chris Thile, Blake Mills, Matt Chamberlain, and John Davis as part of the Thornton Chamber Virtuosi in Fall 2026.
Dylan is currently pursuing a double M.Mus. in Composition and Cello Performance at the University of Southern California.
Past winners:
2025 Paul Novak, impossible inventions
Honorable Mentions:
Balázs Horváth, Charleston for Rozsda
Sami Seif, Ode Phénicienne
2024 Artur Akshelyan, Sillage
Honorable Mention: Eduardo Soutullo, Funeral Music for Black Victims
2023 Gilad Cohen A Dark Matter
Honorable Mention: Paul Novak entwining
2022 Tomàs Peire-Serrate Five Haiku
Second Place: Daniel Sabzghabaei At any rate II. باقی مانده "what remains”
Honorable Mentions:
Paul Novak a string quartet is like a flock of birds
Aaron Levin Snow Fragments
2020 Sarah Westwood's Things You Don’t Yet Know You Feel
Honorable Mention:
Felipe Tovar-Henao: ...de lo voluble...
2019 Sarah Gibson: I prefer living in color
Honorable Mentions:
Luk Wai Chun Vincent: Bian lian
Pascal Le Boeuf: Imp in impulse
2018 Charles Peck: Sunburst [video]
Honorable Mentions:
Jack Frerer: Downloads
Daniel Harrison: Give Up the Ghost
Stephen Yip: Luminosity Etude
2017 Chiayu Hsu: Rhapsody Toccata [video]
2016 Melody Eötvös: House of the Beehives [video]
2015 Christopher Stark: Piano Quartet 2014 [video]
2014 Felix Leuschner: Krieg ohne Schlacht [video]
2013 Michael-Thomas Foumai: Scat
2012 Ryan Carter: too many arguments in line 17
2011 Mike Solomon: Anonymous Student Compliment or Complaint
2010 Steven Snowden
2009 Matthew Barnson: String Quartet
2008 Stephen Feigenbaum: Boiling Point for string quartet
2007 Moritz Eggert
2006 Carl Schimmel
2005 Justin Merritt
2004 Claude Baker
2003 Bruno Ruviaro
2002 Tamar Muskal
2001 Gabriel Vine
2000 Yehuda Yannay
photo credit (strings): Jeanette Yu
