The University of Missouri School of Music and the Mizzou New Music Initiative have awarded the 2017 Sinquefield Composition Prize to Douglas Osmun.

Osmun, who grew up in Zeeland, MI, is a first-year graduate student at Mizzou studying composition with Stefan Freund. He submitted “First Fig,” a work written for alto voice, cello and piano, to the competition and was selected for the prize by a panel of independent judges.

The adjudicators for the 2017 competition were:
* Lee Hartman, instructor in music and music theory, University of Central Missouri;
* Allison Ogden, lecturer in composition, University of Louisville; and
* Christopher Stark, assistant professor of composition, Washington University.

Now in its 12th year, the Sinquefield Composition Prize is the top award for a composition student at Mizzou.

As this year’s winner, Osmun (pictured) now will be commissioned to write an original work for Mizzou’s University Philharmonic orchestra, with the premiere performance to be presented as part of the Chancellor’s Arts Showcase on Monday, April 10, 2017 at the Missouri Theatre in Columbia. With the commission, he also will receive funding for the production of the score and parts, and a professional recording of his work.

Before coming to Mizzou, Osmun earned a BM in music composition at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. While at WMU, he studied with Lisa Renée Coons and Christopher Biggs, and was named a Beulah and Harold McKee Scholar, one of the school’s three top awards for music students.

Osmun’s other awards and accomplishments include the Ron Nelson Award and Symphonic Band Commission; an international premiere of his work at the highSCORE Festival in Italy; a mini-grant from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo; and serving as the Region V Student Representative for the Society of Composers, Inc.

The other finalists for the 2017 Sinquefield Composition Prize were Dustin Dunn, Hans B. Heruth, Aaron Mencher, and Jake Smucker.