The New York Composers Circle is happy to announce that the winner of its 2019 John Eaton Memorial Competition is Cheng Jin Koh for her composition composition Ecstasy for Piano Quartet. Honorable mentions are also awarded to Derek Cooper, Michael Salvatore Grebla, and Ursula Kwong-Brown for their outstanding works. All four of these composers will be awarded a free one-year membership in the New York Composers Circle, and the winner will have her piece performed on our April 21, 2020 concert, which will also incidentally feature a composition by John Eaton, for whom the competition is named.

Cheng Jin Koh (photo below) graduated from the School of the Arts Singapore in 2014 with the International Baccalaureate Diploma as a major in Yang Qin. She is currently pursuing music composition with Dr. Robert Beaser at The Juilliard School, generously sponsored by Singapore’s Loke Cheng Kim Foundation.

This year we had not only a very large number of submissions, but also a larger number of outstanding pieces from which we had to choose, and deciding on our ultimate selection was extremely difficult. At least a dozen of the submissions were worthy of recognition, and we regret that we are limited to selecting a single winner.  We hope that all of these composers will consider entering the competition next year.

The New York Composers Circle holds an annual competition each year to recognize outstanding composers in the New York City community who have not yet had none of their compositions performer by our group. The organization presents concerts and monthly salons in New York City. Composers in the area are invited to attend our salons and present one of their compositions for discussion and feedback. Further information is available on our web site, http://newyorkcomposerscircle.org/.