2023-2024 Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards
Nominees, Classical Composition (Emerging Division)
Yi-Fan Chen, New York, New York, United States
Yi-Fan Chen is a composer for stage and screen from Taiwan. Her orchestral work Just Tell Me Who It Was was selected as the runner-up in One Found Sound’s 2022 Emerging Composer Award, and received the 2nd prize in The Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York’s Emerging Composers Competition. Recently, as the winner of the 2023 NYU Steinhardt Film Scoring Composition Competition, Yi-Fan collaborated with the director Chris Del Río Solorzano on the film Fort Hamilton Parkway and had the work premiered at Symphony Space by NYU Symphony Orchestra in New York. Furthermore, she participated in numerous music events which include the Score Production Workshop from Joy Music House, Young Artist Summer Program from the Curtis Institute of Music, the Composer Collaborative Project from New Music USA, and the Atlantic Music Festival.
Ahmed Karam, Bayonne, New Jersey, United States
I am determined to strengthen the vital creative community around me and inspire diversity through my art. Currently, I study at the Juilliard School Extension Division and work at Concord Music's, Boosey & Hawkes. As a New York-based composer and conductor, I have worked with international orchestras and award-winning filmmakers and am committed to bridging the fap between western and eastern music. I have conducted and composed works for the Novus et Antiqus String Orchestra, the Sinfonica Nacional de Costa Rica, and the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. I am also an avid chorister, performing regularly at Carnegie Hall with the Saint Cecilia Choir of New York. I was recently applauded for my unique musical voice by the Mayor of New York City, Mark Adams, with a Citation from the Office of the Mayor on August 24th, 2023, with the hope that it would inspire future young Arab composers and conductors to explore the arts.
Oliviana Marie, Los Angeles, California, United States
Oliviana Marie is a composer, lyricist, librettist, singer, dancer, actress, trumpeter, pianist, and conductor, currently studying composition at USC's Thornton School of Music. She’s a YoungArts and Grammy Camp winner in the singer-songwriter category, a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts nominee, a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award winner for best original R&B song (presented by Clive Davis), a two-time ambassador of Michael Feinstein’s Great American Songbook Academy, a graduate of the Los Angeles Film Conducting Intensive at Warner Bros., a fellow in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Program, the winner of The Glenn Miller Big Band Scholarship competition, a Eugene O’Neill Cabaret Fellow and the winner of ASMAC’s Vocal Arranging and Big Band Arranging Scholarship Competition (the first person in ASMAC history to win in two categories in one year). Oliviana has written the book, music and lyrics to four award-winning musicals! Her most recent musical, “CORONA’S CABARET: An Act of Destruction" won the Audience Choice Award for PLAYBILL's Virtual Theatre Festival Live.
Jonathan Mauvilly, Corminboeuf, Switzerland
My name is Jonathan Mauvilly, I am a 37 year old music and german high school teacher and do composing on the side, I've done a lot of music for wind band in my twenties including two co-written musicals and have recently started doing symphonic composing which I compose, conduct and record by myself, as well as gather the finances to record the projects. I've won multiple composing competitions in Switzerland, for example the Price for best children's song (2'000) swiss francs) in 2022 and I am classified top 150 in the ERO's call for scores 2024.
Youngwoo Yoo, Seoul, South Korea
Born in Seoul, South Korea, YoungWoo Yoo began her classical composition studies at the age of fifteen and earned many prizes in several international and national competitions. Her works have been performed in Italy, France, Greece, Austria, Albania, Czech Republic, Serbia, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine, U.K, Hong Kong, U.S, and South Korea. In 2019, Dr. Yoo received Honorable Mention in the 17th Kazimerz Serocki International Composers’ Competition (ISCM-Polish Section). Most recently, she received the third prize in the SHE LIVES Budapest Prize International Composition Competition, the 1st prize in the 32nd Young Musician International Competition “Citta di Barletta”, and the Prize I in the 20th International Festival DONNE in MUSICA Composition Competition. In addition, Yoo’s piece for full orchestra, Honbul, was chosen by ABLAZE Records to be included in their album, Orchestral Masters Vol. 2. Dr. Yoo holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studied with Sever Tipei. She received her Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with J. Mark Stambaugh, and received her Bachelor of Music degree, where she studied with Eugene Lee from Ewha Womans University.