The Presser Foundation is pleased to announce the approval of 15 exceptional music awards of $10,000 each, totaling $150,000. These awards are given to outstanding students at prestigious music higher education institutions across the country. The Graduate Music Award is intended to encourage and support the advanced education and careers of graduate music students who have the potential to make a significant contribution to the field of music. Each award supports a project created by the student that will further their education and/or musical experience.
See below for a complete listing of recipients and projects approved this year.
- Jeason Lopez (Florida State University, DM Brass Performance): Researching and documenting the Peruvian pututu and then commissioning three Peruvian composers to create new works for horn informed by Andean soundscapes.
- You-Ling Wang (Indiana University, PhD Music Education): Studying the relationship between music perception and phonological awareness among Taiwanese elementary ESL learners to advance understanding of how musical training supports second-language development.
- Nathan McAdam (Johns Hopkins University, MM Composition): Curating Blessed are the Insured, a new experimental music-theatre work comprising nine commissioned scenes exploring healthcare access through speculative colonial-era fiction.
- Hasan Imam Hamdani (New England Conservatory, DMA Contemporary Musical Arts): Organizing a one-day conference and public concert exploring how the Islamic concept of tawḥīd (divine unity) is expressed through musical form and practice.
- Sean Terada Yang (Rice University, DMA Piano Performance): Recruiting 10-12 performers and 2-4 composers to make weekly visits to ICU floors at Houston’s Texas Medical Center, performing individualized music sets for patients and families while building a library of newly commissioned works tailored to patient requests.
- Cooper Creal (Temple University, PhD Music Studies): Researching undergraduate music student retention into a cross-institutional study, traveling to three to five peer NASM-accredited institutions to conduct face-to-face interviews with students, advisors, and faculty about how curriculum design and pedagogy affect first-year music student persistence.
- Leslie Ashworth (Juilliard School, DMA Viola): Developing a comprehensive chamber music companion resource grounded in her dissertation research drawing on interviews and observations with faculty and artists at leading conservatories and universities across North America and Europe.
- David Manzanares-Salguero (University of Texas, DMA Classical Guitar Performance): Composing and producing No Estoy Yo Aquí, an original chamber opera telling the story of a Guatemalan woman crossing a desert in search of a better life.
- Maxwell Trombley (University of Cincinnati, DMA Choral Conducting): Creating scholarly performance editions of five unpublished sacred works by Puerto Rican composer Felipe Gutiérrez y Espinosa, culminating in a professional recording and public performance in Cincinnati in March 2027.
- Kirsten Barker (University of Illinois, PhD Musicology): Researching British Antarctic music at the British Library, British Antarctic Survey, and Scott Polar Research Institute, while also meeting with composers, instrument makers, and scholars.
- Angela Wang (University of Miami, DMA Violin Performance): Launching the Silver Strings Children’s Music Festival, a two-visit program bringing immersive music experiences to more than 300 school children, with children’s drawings transformed into original compositions performed at the follow-up visit.
- Kelly Hoppenjans (University of Michigan, PhD Musicology): Co-developing a nonprofit platform that empowers vocalists to create and own their AI voice clones — retaining control over licensing, monetization, and use — building on research about voice-transforming technology and ongoing interviews with voice professionals.
- Nathaniel Ash-Morgan (University of North Texas, PhD Ethnomusicology): Launching Tiwula, a cultural organization that strengthens northern Ghanaian music and dance traditions in the southern diaspora.
- Qiuwan Zhao (University of Rochester, PhD Music Theory): Attending the Çudamani Summer Institute in Bali for immersive gamelan gong kebyar study, then translating that experience into a web-based platform integrating transcriptions, pedagogical resources, and computer-assisted compositional tools for this underrepresented tradition.
- Yajing Kang (University of Southern California, DMA Piano Performance): Writing, directing, and scoring a 15–25-minute narrative short film exploring how contemporary life has eroded deep listening, set in a dystopian world where music has disappeared.
Dr. Mary Ellen Poole, Chair of the Scholar Award Committee, shared: “The Presser Foundation is incredibly proud to support these 15 exceptional graduate music students through our Graduate Music Award program. We are inspired by the breadth and depth of their ideas and the lasting impact these projects will have – not only on their individual music careers but on the broader music community. Each recipient demonstrates exceptional talent, intelligence, and a commitment to expanding musical boundaries and fostering cultural understanding. We are honored to support these visionary scholars as they develop projects that will undoubtedly make meaningful contributions to our musical landscape.”
About The Presser Foundation
Established in 1939 under the will of the late Theodore Presser, The Presser Foundation is one of few private foundations in the United States dedicated solely to music education and music philanthropy. The Foundation funds the musical arts in their many dimensions and manifestations, serving a broad and diverse community of musicians, educators, and music lovers. At the heart of this work is a commitment to equitable access – the belief that all musical experiences have the power to transform communities and foster connection, well-being, and joy. Headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, the Foundation’s grantmaking spans national programs supporting exceptional music students and retired music teachers, and regional programs providing grants to music organizations that enrich and strengthen communities through music education, performance, and presentation. For more information: www.presserfoundation.org.