PAS Composition Contest
Funded by the Thomas V. Siwe Endowment
Purpose:
To encourage and reward composers who write music for percussion instruments and to increase the number of quality compositions written for percussion.
2025 Competition:
Category
Percussion Trio
Instrumentation: Three performers, specified as follows:
- Three performers on any number of percussion instruments. Non-standard instrumentation should be clearly described in the performance notes, along with any non-standard playing techniques. Pieces with aleatoric elements should have clear procedural descriptions.
- Electronics may be incorporated into any of the parts.
Duration:
- A minimum of 4-minutes
- For works over 12 minutes, composers should submit one or more excerpts totaling 12 minutes or less.
Notation:
- All parts must be notated.
- Groove or quasi-improvised sections (slash notation, style indications, etc.) may be used but should not constitute a majority of the piece.
Examples of instrumentation that fits the criteria:
- three percussionists on one marimba
- a work that includes guitar, played in a struck fashion or otherwise requiring no technical facility on guitar
- three percussionists with fixed media
- a drumset, timpani, djembe, six kick drums, chromatically tuned pipes (provided it is playable by three percussionists)
- found percussion
- electronic percussion (MalletKat, Mallet Station, Octopad)
Examples of instrumentation that does not fit the criteria:
- two percussionists and one pianist
- a guitar part written to be played as a guitar is normally played
- a work that is purely theatrical/silent nature
- a work where one player exclusively works with electronic processing or non-percussion instruments
Awards:
- $3,000 grand prize, up to two second prize ($250 each), and honorable mentions (no financial award).
- Compositions selected by the judges will be listed on the PAS website with the composer’s picture and bio.
- Grand prize and second prize will be listed along with a review of work(s) in Percussive Notes during early 2026.
Eligibility:
- Only works finished after January 2021 are eligible.
- Works may have been performed previously, but should not be published (self-published works are fine), and works may not have been written as part of a commission or consortium where monetary compensation was provided to create the work. PAS will select one grand prize winner, up to two second prize, and honorable mentions.
Entry Fee:
- $20.00
Procedures:
Submit the following items through the online application:
- A PDF file of the composition absent of any composer information. Label file with title of work.
- An audio file of a computer realization or other recording (non-performance) of the composition absent of any composer or performer information. Label file with title of work.
PLEASE NOTE:
- All complete applications will be evaluated by a panel of judges. Contest results will be announced in late 2025/early 2026.
- All entry materials become property of PAS. PAS does not claim rights to distribute materials. Materials will be archived for historical purposes only. Composers retain all rights to their composition.
- Multiple submissions are allowed, but a separate application and $20 entry fee is required for each entry.
PAS Composition Contest is now closed. Please check back in the Spring for the 2026 contest.
Composition Contest Entry Form
The Composition Contest application is now closed.
2025 Winners: Percussion Trio
GRAND PRIZE: San-Lou Wei, $3,000, “Moon Blocks: A Divination Ritual 擲筊”
San-Lou Wei is a Taiwanese percussionist currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where she studies with Professors Russell Burge and Dr. Adam Groh. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Taipei in 2022 and her Master of Music degree from CCM in 2024.
As a performer, she has appeared as a concerto soloist with the CCM Wind Symphony and as a timpanist in 30 Years of Stephen Flaherty at Carnegie Hall. She has also performed with Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra. Wei has been recognized in national competitions, including as a finalist in the Frances Walton Competition and the Lowell Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition.
Alongside her performance career, Wei is active in contemporary percussion composition. Her work reflects a continual search for new percussive colors and innovative approaches to sound production. She is committed to expanding the artistic possibilities of percussion through performance and collaboration.
2ND PRIZE: Zachary Miller, $250, “Contra Omnes”
Zachary Miller serves as the Assistant Percussion Director for Tomball High School in Tomball, TX. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Kentucky with James Campbell and his graduate studies at the University of North Florida with Dr. Andrea Venet.
As a musician, Zach has performed at Carnegie Hall and with the Bang on A Can All-Stars, won the Kappa Kappa Psi Biennial Solo Competition and Great Plains International Marimba Competition Composition Contest, and performed with his flute and percussion duo at numerous festivals. His pieces have been performed abroad and by universities across the United States. He has recently had a piece premiered by the Escape Ten Duo.
As an educator, Zach directed both scholastic and community ensembles in multiple states and continues to find new and innovative ways to increase accessibility in music education.
HONORABLE MENTION: Jason Sivert, “All(oy)”
Jason Sivert is a steelpan performer, composer, arranger, and music educator based in Wheeling, West Virginia. He holds a Master’s in Music Performance from Appalachian State University and was the first-place winner of the 2024 International Steelpan Bursary competition. He held the position of Operations & Education Coordinator for the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra from 2023 to 2026, where he supported concert production, youth orchestra programming, and community engagement initiatives.
Sivert performs internationally as a soloist and with professional ensembles, sharing his original works and leading outreach clinics in schools and community settings. His work blends artistic excellence with thoughtful planning to connect people to music both on and off the stage.
HONORABLE MENTION: Samuel Thompson, “Concret(e^x) Jungles”
Samuel Thompson is a composer, percussionist, and music educator from the greater Chicago area, currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Music Composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under Dr. PQ Phan. He has studied percussion performance with Kevin Bobo, John Tafoya, and Joseph Gramley, as well as Afro-Cuban hand drumming with Dr. Andy Miller.
Thompson’s music blends contemporary jazz influenced harmonic practices, complex rhythmic language, and common explorations of tonal ambiguity, creating sound worlds that tastefully balance intricacy and accessibility. His experience as a percussionist shapes his compositional voice, particularly in his approach to texture and structural design.
Notable performers of Thompson’s work include Blue Door Percussion, the Indiana University Percussion Ensemble, and Munster High School Choirs. In 2025, Thompson won the IMTA Opus Composition Competition with his found percussion quartet Tailgate Graveyard. He went on to earn an honorable mention in the East Central Division of the MTNA Composition Competition. Additionally, in 2025 Thompson participated in the Del Mar International Composers Symposium, studying with Texu Kim, Jessica Rudman, Joseph Sowa, and Reinaldo Moya.
If you have inquiries about commissions or concert indoor percussion arrangement services, please reach out to Thompson through Instagram @sthomps_music, or send him an email at sam.clifford.thompson@gmail.com
HONORABLE MENTION: Yutong Xie, “Rendered·water”
Yutong Xie is a third-year student majoring in Music Design and Production at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She has been learning percussion and piano since childhood and is dedicated to continuously exploring various fields of music. Her creative style is diverse, covering pop music, percussion, electronic music, music that combines electronic and acoustic instruments, and orchestral music, etc.
Yutong Xie’s composition have won awards both at home and abroad, such as “Wedge of Yin and Yang” (For Chinese percussion and electronic music) won the second prize in the 11th International Music Competition in Stockholm, Sweden in 2024; her composition “Chasing light and shadow in the mountains and waters” (For orchestras, Chinese traditional musical instruments and electronic music) won the third prize in the Original Group of the 2024 IEMC International Electronic Music Competition (Spatial Audio Category), and was selected as the official designated track for the Remix Category of this event in 2025.
In addition to actively creating, Yutong Xie also participates in performances as a percussionist and pianist in symphony orchestras and choirs.
