Abu Dhabi International Competition for Composition (ADICC) Inaugural Winners

As inaugural laureates, the First Prize winners receive a total prize of AED 130,000, a professional recording opportunity and world-premiere performances with internationally acclaimed partner orchestras at the twenty-third edition of Abu Dhabi Festival in April 2026. Second Prize winners receive AED 50,000, a performance opportunity and professional mentorship, while Third Prize recipients are awarded AED 25,000 and access to professional mentorship.  

The winning compositions will also be professionally recorded as part of the Abu Dhabi Festival Composers’ Platform initiative. Established more than a decade and a half ago, the platform supports composers worldwide in presenting their work in Abu Dhabi and internationally, and has produced 36 original compositions and 80 co-commissions, creating high-quality recordings of both traditional and contemporary music. 

Through ADICC, Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation continues to support emerging composers and strengthen Abu Dhabi’s role as a global centre for musical innovation. 

Meet the distinguished jury of the Abu Dhabi International Competition for Composition (ADICC) – a panel of visionary composers, conductors and industry leaders shaping the future of global music.  

Presided over by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun, the jury brings together eminent figures from around the world, including Elmar Lampson, Shen Ye, Aigerim Seilova, Naji Hakim and Robert Townson, each offering exceptional expertise and artistic insight.  

Explore the full jury and stay tuned for the winner announcement in December.  

Du Yun 

Du Yun, born and raised in Shanghai and based in New York, works across opera, orchestra, theatre, cabaret, musical, oral tradition, public performance, electronics, visual art and noise. Her work is championed by many of today’s leading performing groups and organisations worldwide.

Described by The New Yorker as an artist of “relentless originality and unflinching social conscience”, she won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her opera Angel’s Bone and received a Grammy nomination for Air Glow. Her collaborative opera Sweet Land with Raven Chacon was named Best New Opera of 2021 by the Music Critics Association of North America. Four of her studio albums were selected as The New Yorker’s Notable Recordings of the Year between 2018 and 2021, and her monodrama In Our Daughter’s Eyes was listed by the magazine as a notable performance of 2022.

A founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, she served as Artistic Director of the MATA Festival (2014-2018), created the Pan Asia Sounding Festival at National Sawdust and founded FutureTradition, a global initiative highlighting folk lineages and cross-regional collaboration. Her honours include Carnegie Corporation’s Great Immigrants (2018), Artist of the Year at the Beijing Music Festival (2019), a Creative Capital Award (2022) and recognition from Asia Society Hong Kong, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy in Berlin, the Fromm Foundation and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. In 2023 she received Harvard University’s Centennial Medal and in 2024 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

As performer and bandleader of OK Miss, her stage presence has been described by The New York Times as “an indie pop diva with an avant-garde edge”.

She is Professor of Composition at the Peabody Institute and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Her concert music is published internationally by G. Schirmer.

Shen Ye 

Shen Ye is one of China’s leading contemporary composers, recognised for his finely judged balance between Western compositional techniques and a musical sensibility deeply rooted in Chinese culture. Born in 1977 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, he began studying piano and composition at an early age and later graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he now serves as Professor of Composition. His academic path also led him to Europe, with periods of study in Hamburg, Berlin and at IRCAM in Paris, where he expanded his work in orchestration and computer-based composition.

Over the past two decades Shen Ye has become an important voice in China’s contemporary music scene. His works have been performed internationally and are published by Breitkopf & Härtel, one of Europe’s most respected houses. His compositions have received numerous distinctions, including the Bach-Preis-Stipendium in Germany and First Prize at the 13th China National Symphony Awards for his orchestral work In Memoriam.

Shen Ye’s musical language is marked by delicacy and depth, with rich textures, subtle timbral shifts and intricate harmonic layers. Rather than quoting traditional Chinese melodies directly, he evokes the spirit and emotional landscape of Chinese culture through colour, gesture and structure. His output spans chamber and orchestral music as well as concertos that place traditional Chinese instruments in contemporary settings.

A recent highlight is A Rose, a concerto for suona and orchestra published in 2024, in which Shen Ye transforms the suona, often associated with folk ritual, into a commanding virtuoso voice within a modern symphonic context.

Programming Shen Ye’s music offers an opportunity to present a contemporary Chinese compositional voice that speaks fluently across cultures. His work aligns naturally with festivals and concert series that foster artistic dialogue between East and West and his standing within China’s musical community adds distinction to any platform showcasing innovative work from the region’s most dynamic creators.

Elmar Lampson 

Elmar Lampson is a distinguished German composer, conductor and educator, born in 1952 in Koblenz, Germany. He grew up in the Lüneburg Heath, studied composition and violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover and later continued violin studies in Würzburg with Boris Goldstein.

His career spans composition, conducting, teaching and cultural leadership. In 1997 he became Professor of Ensemble Direction for Contemporary Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, and later served as Professor of the Phenomenology of Music at the Universität Witten/Herdecke, where he was Dean of the Faculty of Study Fundamentale. From 2004 to 2022 he was President of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, during which time he expanded international partnerships, developed new performance spaces and strengthened the institution’s international profile.

Lampson’s output includes orchestral music, chamber works, solo pieces, choral compositions and stage music. Among his notable works are his First Symphony, Das Traumlied des Olaf Åsteson, and his Second Symphony, Gesang des Marsyas. His music bridges modernist and post-modern approaches, characterised by clarity, structural awareness and sensitivity to the listener’s experience of sound.

He has received numerous honours, including the Gustaf Gründgens Prize for his contribution to cultural life in Hamburg. His works are performed internationally and valued for both their compositional precision and expressive depth.

For festival programming, Lampson offers a versatile and internationally respected voice in contemporary music, with an output ranging from intimate chamber pieces to full orchestral works.

Aigerim Seilova 

Aigerim Seilova is a Kazakh composer, performer and media artist based in Hamburg, Germany. Her work spans a wide range of genres and media, including opera, orchestral music, multimedia installations, music-theatrical performances and interactive projects. She is known for blending classical and folk instruments with digital elements, incorporating voice, video and sensor-based interactions, and for her commitment to experimentation and the fusion of traditional and contemporary influences.

Seilova studied composition at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, graduating with honours in 2013, and later continued her studies at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama under the mentorship of Georg Hajdu and Elmar Lampson.

In 2019 she was awarded the Hindemith Prize at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in recognition of her distinctive musical voice and innovative approach to composition. Among her notable works is Ich, Elektra, a contemporary reimagining of the Elektra myth that offers a consciously female perspective on the character and narrative.

Her music is celebrated for its lyrical intensity, theatrical imagination and integration of technology, marking her as one of the distinctive voices in contemporary composition today.

Naji Hakim 

Born in Beirut in 1955, Naji Hakim is one of the most celebrated figures in contemporary organ and classical music, known for uniting his Lebanese heritage with the grandeur of the French symphonic tradition. After moving to Paris in 1975, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris under Olivier Messiaen and Jean Langlais, later serving as Messiaen’s assistant in organ improvisation, a role that attests to his exceptional skill and musical insight.

Hakim’s career brings together performance, composition and teaching. As titular organist of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, he developed a reputation for combining technical brilliance with expressive depth. His international concert activity has taken him throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia, establishing him as a leading organist of his generation.

As a composer, Hakim builds a bridge between East and West. His music blends Middle Eastern melodic and rhythmic inflections with the colour, scale and sophistication of the French organ and orchestral traditions. His output ranges from large-scale organ symphonies to chamber works and choral pieces, all marked by lyrical intensity, rich harmony and inventive orchestration. Works such as his Symphony No. 1 for Organ and Concerto for Organ and Orchestra exemplify this distinctive synthesis.

Naji Hakim stands as a musical ambassador, a Lebanese artist whose work resonates internationally and connects cultures through the language of music. His legacy lies not only in his compositions and performances but also in the generations of musicians he continues to influence and inspire.

Robert Townson

Robert Townson is an acclaimed American film-music producer and one of the most prolific figures in the industry. Across his extensive career he has produced nearly 1,500 soundtrack albums and worked with many of the world’s leading composers, including Jerry Goldsmith, Alex North, Elmer Bernstein, John Williams, Maurice Jarre, Lalo Schifrin, James Horner, Alan Silvestri, Thomas Newman, Henry Mancini, Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman, as well as Alexandre Desplat and many others.

In 1985 he founded Masters Film Music in Canada, releasing Jerry Goldsmith’s The Final Conflict as his first album, the beginning of a collaboration that would result in more than 80 albums together. Townson’s work encompasses original soundtracks, restored classic scores and new recordings, and his discography has become an essential part of film-music history.

Beyond album production he has been instrumental in curating and producing major concert events devoted to film music, working with leading orchestras such as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. After three decades at the renowned label Varèse Sarabande he left in 2019 to establish Robert Townson Productions, offering production services for orchestras, festivals and special events around the world.

Long recognised as a significant figure in the history of film music, Townson has built a career shaped by a lifelong passion for both cinema and classical music and continues to influence musicians and audiences across generations.