16 Mar 2026 Gardner Competition for Composers Winners Announced!
The American Viola Society proudly announces winners of the 2026 Maurice Gardner Competition for Composers! Since 2010, the biennial AVS Gardner Competition has identified and promoted promising new works for viola and encouraged new additions the viola repertoire. All entries are anonymized and winners are selected on their compositional merits by a panel of composers and violist performers. We are grateful to our 2026 judging panel and to 2026 AVS Gardner Competition Chair, Dr. Marcus Pyle. The next Gardner Competition will be announced in spring 2027.
FIRST PRIZE
Duo for Violin and Viola
A Los Angeles native, Todd Mason received his master’s in composition from The Juilliard School, studying with David Diamond, Peter Mennin, and Elliott Carter. Mason received the Rodgers & Hammerstein Juilliard Scholarship, Juilliard’s Marion Freschl Award for a composition for voice and orchestra, the First Place Award in the National Federation of Music Clubs, First Place in the Lancaster Summer Arts Festival, and the ASCAP Young Composers award, presented personally by Aaron Copland. His Chamber Suite recently won the First Place Award in the American String Teachers Association 75th Anniversary Composition Contest.
Mason’s compositions have been played by the Juilliard Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic, the Brno Philharmonic, numerous leading chamber ensembles, members of the Budapest Philharmonic, LA Opera Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His works have been performed in Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia, and his work has been featured at the Lancaster (USA) Summer Arts Festival, Astoria Music Festival (where he was composer-in-residence for two years), the Laguna Beach Arts Festival, Carlsbad Music Festival, Piano Spheres, Mount Wilson Concerts in the Dome (7 times), Chamber Music Palisades, Sunset ChamberFest (composer-in-residence in 2019), the University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles, University of Las Vegas, Brigham Young University, and The Juilliard School. Mason’s Duo for Violin and Viola (2024) was recently admitted into the prestigious Primrose International Archive’s permanent collection after an internal college performance at BYU. His Aurora Borealis for solo clarinet was premiered at the Beethovenfest 2023 in Bonn, and the Trio for Flute, Violin and Cello at the 2022 Mount Wilson Concerts in the Dome series with Martin Chalifour, Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. His “City of Angels” for string quartet was premiered at Concerts in the Dome in July 2025.
Mason’s Violin Concerto, recorded with Dutch virtuoso Tosca Opdam and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra was released in 2023 by Ulysses Arts along with his Chamber Suite. The album was critically acclaimed as a ‘stellar recording’ (Textura), ‘expressive and virtuosic’ (Classical Music Daily) and ‘a superb recording that should be listened to time and again’ (Interlude). His Magical for flute, viola, and harp was commissioned in 2023 and premièred at Chamber Music Palisades in Los Angeles. In 2024, Mason was composer-in-residence at the 2024 Syros International Classical Festival in Greece.
Mason’s Lux Aeterna album was released in September of 2025, including his requiem, Lux Aeterna, his 3rd String Quartet, and his “City of Angels” for string orchestra. He will be recording 2 major orchestral works in Prague with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in November, 2025, along with his 5th String Quartet which will be recorded by the Zemlinsky Quartet.
SECOND PRIZE
Polarizations
Photo credit: Stefan Maria Rother
Gilad Hochman is a composer known for his emotional intensity and structural clarity. The New York Times praised his “gift for assembling musical gestures,” noting the humor, nuance, and psychological depth in his work. Described by the BBC as “an already well-known classical composer,” Hochman crafts sound worlds where tradition and innovation are in constant dialogue. Based in Berlin since 2007, after graduating with honors from Tel Aviv University’s School of Music, his solo, chamber, choral, and orchestral works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, and numerous other venues, festivals and concert series — earning him prestigious composition awards and international acclaim.
HONORABLE MENTION
A Moment Between Moments
Cooper Wood is a composer from Ohio. Born and raised in the small town of Madison, Ohio, Cooper began his composition studies in high school before attending The Ohio State University for his undergraduate and masters degrees. His work has been performed across the country and internationally by ensembles including the IU New Music Ensemble, Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble, Central Ohio Symphony, IU Symphony Orchestra, OSU Symphony Orchestra, Snowbelt Symphony, Lakeland Civic Orchestra, University of Illinois Wind Orchestra, IU Symphonic Band, OSU Symphonic Band, IU Saxophone Ensemble and more. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he studies with P.Q. Phan and David Dzubay.
HONORABLE MENTION
Blue Grass and Green Skies
Benedikt Brydern received formal training in violin and piano at the Richard-Strauss Academy of Music in Munich, Germany.
He was selected to perform with the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein in 1988. He returned to the festival in 1990 to participate in the television series “Orchestra!” featuring Sir Georg Solti and Dudley Moore.
Following his graduation, he was awarded a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship, enabling him to further his studies in the United States. He completed the Advanced Studies Program “Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television” at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, where he studied with David Raksin, Elmer Bernstein, and Bruce Broughton.
He is the recipient of two Marmor Composition Awards, sponsored by the Stanford University Music Department, the 2002 William Lincer Foundation Chamber Music Competition, and in 2004, the Composer’s Symposium at the Bach Festival in Eugene, OR commissioned him to compose a string trio in honor of George Crumb’s 75th birthday. The Oakland East Bay Symphony, in collaboration with the James Irvine Foundation, commissioned a new work for their 2010/11 season. He was a National Finalist in the Rapido Composition Competition in Atlanta (Atlanta Chamber Players) in 2020 and 2024. In 2024, he won the Atlanta Master Chorale Inaugural Composition Competition.
His compositions have been performed and premiered by esteemed ensembles including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Sacramento Philharmonic, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Master Chorale and numerous chamber ensembles.
His music is published by Universal Edition, Ries & Erler, Mel Bay, Edition Kossack, and Peer Music International.
2026 GARDNER JUDGES
The American Viola Society appreciates the renowned judges of the 2026 Gardner Competition: Caroline Gilbert, Noam Faingold, and Jared Miller
CAROLINE GILBERT
Caroline Gilbert, born in Bloomington, IN, grew up playing the violin in the pre-college program at Indiana University. After a little soul searching at Vanderbilt University, where she double majored in music and pre-med, she transferred to Indiana University where she completed her Bachelor of Music degree with Atar Arad. While at the University, she won the concerto competition and performed Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher as a soloist with the Indiana University chamber orchestra. She was then asked to represent the school at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., performing in the “Conservatory Project” concert series. For her Master of Music degree, she attended The Juilliard School where she studied with Samuel Rhodes and Rodger Tapping. After participating in the Keshet Elion summer mastercourse in Israel, where her performance was broadcast on the radio in New York, she went on to play with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; worked with Michael Tilson Thomas as a member of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra in Sydney, Australia; toured Turkey, Spain, and Germany with the Schleswig-Holstien Festival Orchestra; played alongside the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Music Festival; and spent the last three summers in Switzerland playing with the Verbier Festival Orchestra. After completing her degrees, she moved to Miami Beach to join the New World Symphony until winning the Principal Viola position with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2017.
NOAM FAINGOLD
Composer Noam Faingold’s music has been described as “…lyrical…,” “…exhilarating…,” and “…a tour-de-force of Jazz melded with Classical…” by sources as varied as The New York Times, The BBC, Downbeat Magazine, and The Tulsa World among others. His crossover ensemble Burning City Orchestra’s debut album was described as “21st century acoustic electric art music” (Rich Fisher, Public Radio Tulsa).
Through a Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Fellowship, Faingold was able to study with Justin Dello Joio and Ezequiel Viñao at New York University and Silvina Milstein and George Benjamin at King’s College London, where he received his Ph.D. in Music Composition. He received additional fellowships through the Salzburg Global Seminar, The Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Atlantic Music Festival, and has served as Visiting Artist in Composition at The University of Tulsa, Artistic Director of the OK Electric Festival of electroacoustic music, and Composer-in-Residence of Oklahoma State University Cellofest.
Creative activities include commissions from TEDx, The International Double Reed Society and New York Philharmonic oboist Rob Botti, Andrés Franco and Tulsa Signature Symphony, The Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra, new music ensembles Sound Energy (Boston) and TRANSIT New Music, Congregation B’nai Emunah’s 100th anniversary, and violinist Dennis Kim, among others. Additional performance highlights include the Jönköping Sinfonietta (Jönköping, Sweden), the chamber music series of ProQuartet (Paris) and the Tampere Philharmonic (Tampere, Finland), and the Aspen and Bowdoin festivals. His music can be heard on WQXR’s new music podcast Q2, and albums by Mainly Two violin duo (Turquoise Coconut) and cellist Tess Remy-Schumacher (XOLO). Collaborative projects include being the arranger/orchestrator for Baritone Lester Lynch and the San Francisco Opera Choir’s Gospel/Classical album “On My Journey” (Pentatone), Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey and the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra’s take on Beethoven’s 3rd and 6th symphonies, and working with poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s family on an orchestral elegy in Yevtushenko’s memory.
As an educator, Faingold has focused on program and curriculum building to provide access to music composition mentorship. He created the current curricula at Tulsa Community College, the Barthelmes Conservatory pre-college program at the bART Center for Music (where he also served as Director of the Conservatory), and The University of Tulsa’s week-long Composition Seminar for high school students. He works extensively with arts organizations like the Mid-America Arts Alliance’s “Artist Inc.” artist mentorship program and the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association. His work includes arts advocacy through composition, public speaking, and education.
JARED MILLER
Described as a “rising star” by MusicWorks magazine, JUNO-Nominated composer Jared Miller’s eclectic music is “playful” (New York Times), “hypnotic” (Sequenza 21), “phantasmagorical” (Lucid Culture) and “highly personal” (CBC Radio.) He has worked in collaboration with many ensembles both in North America and internationally including the American Composers Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Nashville Symphony, the Victoria Symphony, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, the symphony orchestras of Vancouver, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Edmonton, the Juilliard Orchestra, Cleveland’s Contemporary Youth Orchestra, the Sneak Peek Orchestra, The Attacca Quartet, Latitude 49 Ensemble, the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, the Emily Carr String Quartet, Sonora Collective, Standing Wave Ensemble and a long list of soloists that include pianists Sara Davis Buechner, Jani Parsons, Robert Fleitz and Imri Talgam, and violinist Francisco Fullana. His music has been featured and recognized in the New York Philharmonic’s Biennial (2014), the ISCM World Music Days (2017 & 2019), Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival (2010, 2015 & 2019) and the Vancouver and Victoria Symphony’s New Music Festivals (2015-2019.)
Upcoming and recent highlights include the US premiere of Under Sea, Above Sky with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the online premiere of Miller’s mixed quartet Go! for the Sonora Collective, the world premiere of Miller’s piano trio Absolute with the Graham Sommer Trio, the world premiere of Miller’s Phoenix, for String Quartet, written for the Echea Quartet and commissioned by Müzewest Concerts, and a stint as an artist fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Manasota Key, FL.
Miller has won numerous awards for composition that include a 2012 ASCAP Morton Gould Award, the 2011/12 Juilliard Orchestra Competition, three SOCAN awards for young composers (2011, 2015 and 2019) and SOCAN’s Jan V. Matejcek Award for Excellence in New Classical Composition in 2020. His orchestral work Under Sea, Above Sky, which was recorded by the National Youth Orchestra of Canada was nominated for a JUNO Award in 2020 for Classical Composition of the Year. He has also been featured as an artist-in-residence at I-Park’s International Artist-in-Residence Program, the Banff Centre, the Avaloch Farm Music Institute, and the Hermitage Artist Retreat. An active pianist, Miller has performed at a variety of venues including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Lincoln Center and the Chan Center for the Performing Arts in Vancouver, BC.
As a passionate advocate for musical education and outreach, Miller has taught and performed in several initiatives including The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Connects Program, the BC Health Arts Society, Vancouver’s Opera in the Schools and for New York’s Opportunity Music Project.
Born in Los Angeles in 1988, Miller holds Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Juilliard School where he studied with Samuel Adler and John Corigliano. He has also studied composition with Stephen Chatman and Dorothy Chang and piano with Sara Davis Buechner and Corey Hamm at the University of British Columbia. In 2014 at age 25, Miller was named the Victoria Symphony’s composer-in-residence – a position that he held until June of 2017. After concluding a two-year stint as Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, he will begin a new position as Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of North Carolina School for the Arts in Fall of 2022.