University of Missouri composition student Dustin Dunn has won this year’s award in the “Young Artist” category of the Missouri state division of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) composition competition.

Dunn, a junior working on a bachelor’s degree in music composition at Mizzou, was recognized for “Of Stained Glass and Hymnody,” which was premiered in March 2016 by the Mizzou New Music Ensemble. He’s the third Mizzou student in a row to win the statewide MTNA award, following Ben Colagiovanni last year and Trey Makler in 2014.

“Of Stained Glass and Hymnody” now will be entered in the national MTNA composition competition, which offers a first place prize of $3,000, plus a performance at the Winners Concert during the 2017 MTNA National Conference taking place from March 18 to March 22 in Baltimore, MD.

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

Dunn was profiled in the Fall 2015 issue of Mizzou, the University’s alumni magazine, and you can read that story online here.