Read bios of the Student Composer Award winners

2007 BMI Student Composer Award winners (l-r): Clint Needham, Eric Guinivan, Nathan Shields, Gabrielle Nina Haigh, Matthew Peterson, Roger Zare, Shawn Jaeger, Aaron Holloway-Nahum, Sebastian Chang, Bryan Christian, and Otto Muller

The 2007 awards were presented to Sebastian Chang (age 19, studies at the Curtis Institute of Music); Bryan Christian (age 22, studies at Indiana University); Eric Guinivan (age 23, studies at the University of Southern California); Gabrielle Nina Haigh (age 15, studies at the Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ohio); Aaron Holloway-Nahum (age 24, studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London); Shawn Jaeger (age 22, studies at the University of Michigan); Otto Muller (age 25, studies at the University of Buffalo (SUNY); Clint Needham (age 25, studies at Indiana University); Matthew Peterson (age 22, studies at Indiana University); Nathan Shields (age 23, studies at the Juilliard School), and Roger Zare (age 21, studies at the University of Southern California).

Milton Babbitt, Carlos Surinach Prize Winner Gabrielle Nina Haigh, BMI’s Del Bryant and Ralph Jackson

The BMI Student Composer Awards recognize superior creative talent and winners receive scholarship grants to be applied toward their musical education. In 2007, more than 400 manuscripts were submitted to the competition from throughout the Western Hemisphere, and all works were judged under pseudonyms. Cash awards totaled $20,000. Clint Needham was the named the winner of the William Schuman Prize, which is awarded to the score judged "most outstanding" in the competition. This special prize is given each year in memory of the late William Schuman, who served for 40 years as chairman, then chairman emeritus, of the BMI Student Composer Awards. Additionally, the Carlos Surinach Prize, awarded to the youngest winner in the competition, went to Gabrielle Nina Haigh.

Preliminary Judges (l-r): Chester Biscardi, Bernadette Speach, David Leisner, Awards Chairman Milton Babbitt, and Final Judge Ellen Taaffe Zwilch

The 2007 Student Composer Awards jury members were Richard Danielpour, David Dzubay, Christopher Rouse, Gunther Schuller and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The preliminary judges were Chester Biscardi, David Leisner and Bernadette Speach.

BMI has given 514 scholarship grants to young composers over the years, and many of today's most prominent and active classical composers received their first recognition from the BMI Student Composer Awards. Eleven former winners have gone on to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize in Music. The BMI Student Composer Awards competition is co-sponsored by BMI and the BMI Foundation, Inc.

The BMI Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1985 to support the creation, performance, and study of music through awards, scholarships, commissions and grants. Tax-deductible donations to the Foundation come primarily from songwriters, composers and publishers, BMI employees and members of the public with a special interest in music. Because both the Foundation staff and the distinguished members of the Advisory Panel serve without compensation, over 95% of all donations and income are used for charitable grants.

Shown after the March Acoustic Lounge are BMI's Joe Maggini, guitarist Tom Boese, BMI's Tracie Verlinde, performers Monique DeBose, Tia Sprocket, Shaheen and Gabrielle, and BMI's Myles Lewis. Photo by Ellen Ratner

The Acoustic Lounge is one of many opportunities BMI offers to artists to showcase their talent in front of their peers and a supportive audience. The atmosphere is relaxed and fun, and is a great place to network with other aspiring and working singer/songwriters. For established writers, it provides a chance to monitor new musical trends and be involved in the grass-roots/DIY musical movement.]]> 2006-03-13T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/234443 Artists, Fatty Koo, Gabrielle, Lennon, John, Musical Styles, Latin, Urban Fatty Koo met up with BMI executives at a recent Oneness/John Lennon Educational Tour Bus showcase in Mount Vernon, NY where the quintet performed several of their new songs, including their first single, "Bounce."

Pictured before the show are (clockwise) Fatty Koo members Marya, Valure, Eddie B and Gabrielle, and BMI's J.W. Johnson and Charlie Feldman.

Fatty Koo is a musical collective comprised of five diverse and multi-talented individuals who stand ready to shake up the urban and pop music scene with an infectious blend of original songs, fresh sounds and vibrant personalities. Band members Eddie B, Gabrielle, Marya, Ron and Valure all met on board the John Lennon Bus in Columbus, Ohio, where they wrote and recorded several songs and discovered their mutual and uncanny musical chemistry.

The hip hop/R&B/pop/Latin group is currently starring in its own BET reality series, Blowin' UP: Fatty Koo, an unscripted drama that follows the lives of the five members who have to write, rehearse, record and live together in a mansion with the lure of success shimmering on the horizon and without tearing each other apart.

The band's debut album, The House of Fatty Koo, is slated for release this summer, while their song, "It's Over," can be heard on the soundtrack to Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie.]]> 2005-05-11T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/events/entry/532777 Artists, Damozel, Felisa, Gabrielle, J2, Kessie, Kevin, Musical Styles, Urban, Regions, Los Angeles, Songwriter / Industry, Showcase, Showcase Templated 2003-03-15T01:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/events/entry/532805 Artists, Curtis, Emily, Gabrielle, Maybaum, Andrea, Owens, Kelli, Sharp, Shanna, Sheeler, Jodi, Awards, Musical Styles, Pop, Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Regions, New York, Showcase, Showcase Templated
Kelli Owens, Emily Curtis, Gabrielle, Fore Reel Entertainment's Hernando Courtwright, BMI's Erica Tompkins, Shanna Sharp, BMI's Jessie Lema, BMI's Brooke Primont, and Andy Ranley      

Andrea Maybaum

Shanna Sharp, Hernando Courtwright, BMI's Brooke Primont, Andrea Maybaum, and Kelli Owens

Emily Curtis

Jodi Sheeler, Hernando Courtwright, Emily Curtis, BMI's Brooke Primont, and Gabrielle

Shanna Sharp

Kelli Owens

Jodi Sheeler

Gabrielle

Fore Reel Entertainment's Hernando Courtwright

Photos by Dave Bills and Eric Miller

BMI artists who participated on the It's About Eve CD bonus track with Joan Jett include (front row): Gabrielle Gewirtz, Nini Camps, Rosetta Stone, Emily Bindinger, Julie Kovich and Diana Ponzio; (back row): Andrea Maybaum, Edie Carey, Kelli Owens, Shana Sharp and Jolie Rickman.

"There is no immediate cure, all women are at risk, and early detection is vital to survival," writes executive producer Hernando Courtright in the CD's liner notes. "This project honors all women who have lost the fight to breast cancer and all those who have survived it."

100% of the net proceeds go to charities that benefit cancer research and outreach programs, including the T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS Research, Libby Ross Foundation, and the Comedy Cures Foundation.

Scott Smith and Jenn Smith of Naked Blue, Arlan, BMI's Brooke Primont, and Kevin Briody

Amanda Garrigues, BMI's Brooke Primont, Chris Elliott and Gabrielle

Photos by Eric Miller

The bubbly Rich first came to prominence as a Manhattan socialite and wife of a billionaire commodities trader. She took up songwriting at around the same time, originally as a method of addressing her troubled marriage. But by 1986 - when one of her first compositions, "Frankie," became a number one R&B hit for Sister Sledge - Rich was pursuing her music in earnest, with decidedly rewarding results.

Since then, Rich has emerged as one of pop's most in-demand songwriters, her compositions having been recorded by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige (their hit duet "Don't Waste Your Time"), Celine Dion, Marc Anthony, Patti LaBelle, Mandy Moore, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Innosense, Allure, Terry Dexter, Taylor Dayne, Johnny Mathis, Oleta Adams, Phyllis Hyman, Chaka Khan, Martha Wash, Nana Mouskouri and Grover Washington Jr.

"I have always found that the best success is when you write for the artist," Rich says. "That way you can talk with them and find out how they want to say it. It's more honest."

Despite her songwriting success, Rich is equally well-known in Manhattan social circles for her lavish, star-studded fundraising soirees, which have benefited humanitarian organizations like Lifebeat, as well as the Democratic National Committee. But Rich's most personal cause is her own G&P Foundation for Cancer Research, which she founded in 1996 in honor of her daughter Gabrielle, who died of leukemia that year at the age of 27.

But her songwriting remains Denise Rich's most personal passion. "I think that I bring a very universal quality in my songs," she says, "because I listen and I write from feelings and emotions."