The Department of Music is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 prizes for distinction in Music Composition, awarded annually to undergraduate and graduate students who demonstrate distinction in the area of Music Composition, as determined by a committee of faculty members in the Composition area.
The Boris & Eda Rapoport Prize
Awarded annually to a junior undergraduate composer who, in the opinion of the Faculty, has demonstrated special merit in composition for chamber ensembles. This year's award has been given to Azalea Twining.
Azalea Twining is a composer and vocalist from NYC and Harrisonburg, VA. Her most recent works include Enough Rope, a song cycle set to poetry by Dorothy Parker premiered at MATA (Music at the Anthology) last Spring; Appalachian Postludes for String Quartet; and Sun Through my Window, for voice, piano, and appalachian harp, premiered by her band, Allmost Honorable Ladies. She has received commissions from the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Program, Cincinnati May Festival, ChamberQUEER, Composers Now Second Stage Initiative, Intersection Ensemble, and Luna Composition Lab–where she studied with Ellen Reid and won the 2021 G. Schirmer for Luna Lab Prize for her piano trio, Under Her Voices.
As a young singer she was mentored by Eileen Clark, and is currently a student of Jospehine Mondiardo-Cooper at Columbia University. Azalea has had the pleasure of working for composer Elizabeth Hoffman, premiering her opera, On Circe, last May at the Dimenna Center for Classical Music, with additional performances at The Washington Square Contemporary Music Society and SEAMUS (The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States). Azalea has also performed new works by herself and fellow composers at venues across NYC including National Sawdust, The Tenri Cultural Institute, WQXR, and Carnegie Hill Concerts. She hopes to foster a career as a composer/performer, with a focus on producing her own work.
