Composition alumnus and student win top awards in national 'American Prize' competition

Okpebholo's This is Africa won first place in the American Prize in Composition - band/wind ensemble professional division. He is a widely sought-after and award-winning composer whose music has been described as having "enormous grace..., fantasy and color."

His previous awards include second place in the American Prize in Composition Competition (professional and orchestral division), winner of the Adams-Owens Composition Prize, the Flute New Music Consortium Composition Competition, and the Sound of Late Call for Collaborators Competition. A regularly commissioned composer, Okpebholo's music has been performed on five continents, all across the United States, and at some of the nation's greatest concert venues, including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. He is currently an associate professor of music composition and theory at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. Learn more on his professional website.

Hebel's Tides Within won third place in the American Prize in Composition Competition - band/wind ensemble student division. The piece was commisioned by the CCM Wind Ensemble, which performed the premiere of Tides Within on April 24, 2019, in Corbett Auditorium. The piece is dedicated to CCM Professor Emeritus Terence Milligan, who also conducted its premiere. Tides Within was also a national finalist for the American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for Performance of American Music. Hebel's Dulce et Decorum Est won second place in the American Prize in Composition Competition - vocal chamber music student division. A performance of the piece was recorded live in CCM's Werner Recital Hall on April 19, 2018. 

Hebel also won the 2020 Presser Foundation Graduate Music Award. His previous awards include second place in the 2019 American Prize in Orchestral Composition Competition and he was a national finalist in the 2015 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Learn more on his professional website.