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Education Grant Report

Students

A substantial portion of Education Grant funding is dedicated to direct student support through scholarships, assistantships, internships, travel awards, festival and performance fee assistance, and support for guest composers and performers who work directly with students.

Established in 2011, the Milton A. Barlow Scholarship and the Barlow Student Composition Award are ongoing honors presented to the most outstanding composition students in our program. The Milton A. Barlow Scholarship is a one-year, full-tuition scholarship, while the Barlow Student Composition Award is a$750 cash prize that includes a commission to write a new work for one of BYU’s premier large ensembles.

The 2025 Milton A. Barlow Scholarship was awarded to outstanding incoming graduate student Evan Chamberlain. The scholarship played an essential role in our recruiting efforts and helped confirm Evan’s decision to study at BYU among several excellent options. Evan is a talented composer, horn player, and pianist who has added considerable depth to our community. His contributions as a composition-area teaching assistant and instructor of ear-training courses have been invaluable.

Evan’s composition, A Joyful Noise, written as the recipient of the 2024 Barlow Student Composition Award, was premiered by the BYU Philharmonic on April 12, 2025, under the direction of Nathan Haines.

The 2025 Barlow Student Composition Award was presented to outstanding senior composition major Daniel Woodfield. Daniel will compose a new work for the BYU Wind Symphony, which will premiere during a winter 2026 concert. Conductor Dr. Shawn Smith has provided valuable mentorship throughout the project.

Many students benefit from Barlow scholarship support even when they are not recipients of the named Milton A. Barlow Scholarship. This support, combined with the many other activities funded through the Education Grant, helps us foster a community of active and successful student composers who are sharing their music with the world and receiving meaningful recognition for their work.

Barlow funds also strengthened our lower-division composition curriculum by providing honoraria for top student performers to workshop works by students enrolled in Music 187R and Music 388R. During Spring Term 2025, funding for four student performers enabled Music 187R students to hear their compositions performed and receive valuable feedback through workshops.

Grant funds also support student participation in summer workshops and educational programs. This year, composition major Eleanor Smith received assistance to attend Composing in the Wilderness in Alaska, a unique program that encourages participants to draw inspiration from nature in the creation of new chamber music.

July 2025 marked the eighteenth year that BYU student interns assisted with the annual Barlow Prize and Commissions judging process. This year's interns were Rylie Pence, Luke Wallin, Enoch Thornock, Samuel Erickson, and Cade Singleton. As in previous years, these internships greatly benefited both the competition process and the students, who gained valuable experience and professional insight through their service.

Dr. Jones also led composition students on a field trip to hear the Utah Symphony perform innovative contemporary music. Modest support from the Barlow Education Grant covered tickets and travel expenses. The experience exposed students to new artistic ideas and provided a unique mentoring opportunity with Dr. Stehen Jones.

Guest Artists

Supported by the Barlow Education Fund, 2025 was a rich and enriching year of innovative programming featuring influential guest composers and performers:

  • Tobias Klein & Fie Schouten (January 2025): The Amsterdam-based husband-and-wife clarinet duo held a residency early in the year.
    • Education: Tobias Klein, who is also an accomplished composer, delivered a lecture on his music during a composition seminar on Thursday, January 16. The duo also conducted masterclasses and private lessons for both student composition majors and clarinetists.
    • Performance: On Tuesday, January 14, they performed a concert in the Box. The program featured works by Klein, Michael Finnissy, and Unsuk Chin, alongside a free-improvisation set alongside BYU faculty members Christian Asplund and Brian Woodbury.
  • Jason Hardink & Kimi Kawashima: The renowned Salt Lake City-based husband-and-wife pianists presented a sponsored concert for the benefit of faculty and students, premiering newly composed works by Michael Carnes, Wang Lu, and Jeffrey Holmes.
  • Raven Chacon (April 10): The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, MacArthur Fellow, and first Native American to receive the Pulitzer in Music presented at the composition seminar and met with faculty composers.
  • Ben Sabey & Nick Bacchetto (October 23): The composer-performers lectured at the composition seminar and performed a joint concert featuring their own original pieces alongside works by Olivier Messiaen.

Faculty Projects

The Barlow Education Fund continues to support vital faculty projects and professional activities. This funding elevates the profile and reputation of our department while ensuring our faculty remains at the forefront of current trends and practices to best instruct our students. All BYU composition faculty receive support from this grant for conference travel, performances of their work, and the digital distribution of their music. Notable 2025 faculty highlights include:

  • Dr. Neil Thornock Album Release: Received support to distribute his recordings of truly transformative "just intonation" tuned piano pieces, created in collaboration with electronic composer and specialist Scott Miller. The album is scheduled for release on the prominent new music label New Focus Recordings. Digital Presence: Received supplemental support for his SoundCloud Pro subscription, providing an efficient platform to share his music globally.
  • Dr. Steve Ricks Album Release: Received funding (supplementing College funds) to complete and launch his album, Mythological Fragments, released through New Focus Recordings in collaboration with label director Daniel Lippel. The album features his extended work for soprano, piano, and electronics, Medusa in Fragments, as well as his chamber opera, Baucis and Philemon.
  • Dr. Christian Asplund Album Release: Received funding to release a follow-up recording of his settings of Doctrine and Covenants verses, titled The Wide Expanse of Eternity. This ambitious collection features 52 songs for voice and piano performed by the composer, alongside BYU faculty vocalists and instrumentalists. Holy Week Trilogy: Received supplemental funding for a performance of his Holy Week Trilogy at the Logan Tabernacle, which featured the premiere of Christ in the Spirit World. Production support was provided by Utah State University (USU) faculty member and renowned tenor Thomas Glenn, who performed in all three pieces. The production also featured Logan-based instrumentalists and singers, as well as faculty vocalists from BYU and Utah Valley University (UVU). Several live tracks from this performance were included in The Wide Expanse of Eternity. International Residency: Received additional funding from the Education Fund to complement his BYU Honors Program-funded six-week residency and retreat in Amsterdam, allowing him to advance his work on the Doctrine and Covenants song cycle and other current projects.

The Barlow Education Grant continues to drive a variety of worthwhile, highly productive activities within the BYU School of Music composition area. We remain deeply grateful for its profound impact on our faculty and students, and we look forward to the exceptional work it will support in the years to come.