Mizzou student Dustin Dunn has won the West Central Division in the “Young Artist” category of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) composition competition.

Dunn (pictured), a junior working on a bachelor’s degree in music composition, was recognized for “Of Stained Glass and Hymnody,” which was premiered in March 2016 by the Mizzou New Music Ensemble.

His award in the West Central Division is the latest step in a process that began in October, when he was named winner of the Missouri state division of this year’s MTNA competition.

Dunn’s work now advances to the finals of MTNA’s national competition, which offers a first place prize of $3,000, plus a performance at the Winners Concert during the 2017 MTNA National Conference, which will take place from March 18 to March 22 in Baltimore, MD.

A native of Annapolis, MO and graduate of Iron South High School, Dunn was a winner in Mizzou’s statewide Creating Original Music Project (COMP) and in the Missouri Composers Project before enrolling at the university with a full-tuition Sinquefield Scholarship to study composition. In addition to his awards from MTNA, he also was the winner of the Springfield (MO) Symphony’s 2016 Missouri Composition Competition.

You can read more about Dustin Dunn in the Fall 2015 issue of Mizzou, the University’s alumni magazine, and see the Mizzou New Music Ensemble’s performance of “Of Stained Glass and Hymnody” in the embedded video player below.