Awards chairman and composer Milton Babbitt, Daniel Tacke, BMI President Del Bryant, and BMI Foundation President Ralph N. Jackson. Photo credit: BMI/Gary Gershoff

His winning composition, LVMINVS, a string trio, was also honored in May with the Nancy B. and Russell C. Hatz Special Recognition Award by the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Composers Contest.

Tacke studied at Oberlin with Professor of Composition Lewis Nielson and Assistant Professor of Composition Ross Feller, and, he says, “spent a considerable amount of time learning from Professor of Composition Randolph Coleman.” He earned his bachelor of music degree in composition in May 2006.

The BMI Student Composer Awards, established in 1951, recognize superior creative talent and winners receive scholarship grants to be applied toward their musical education. Tacke is enrolled in the master of music program at the University of California at San Diego.

More than 400 manuscripts were submitted to the competition from throughout the Western Hemisphere, and all works were judged under pseudonyms. The jury members were Michael Daugherty, Mario Davidovsky, Tobias Picker, Roger Reynolds, and José Serebrier.

Eleven former winners of the BMI Student Composer Awards have gone on to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize in Music, including Christopher Rouse ’71, Stephen Albert, Dominick Argento, William Bolcom, George Crumb, Mario Davidovsky, John Harbison, Aaron Jay Kernis, Donald Martino, Joseph Schwantner, and Charles Wuorinen.

The BMI Student Composer Awards competition is co-sponsored by BMI and the BMI Foundation, Inc.