The International Competition for Young Composers is jointly initiated and organized by the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM), Universal Edition Vienna (UE), and the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. The Competition is to be held every two years, alternately for chamber music and orchestral music composition. Aiming to provide a stage for young composers around the world to showcase their talents, the Competition is going to strengthen academic and cultural exchange, as well as jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind.

In 2025, the competition is held for chamber music composition. The organizing committee had received a total of 90 works submitted by participants from China, Germany, the United States, Italy, Brazil, Croatia, Peru, Singapore, and other countries.

After the dedicated efforts and rigorous evaluation by the preliminary round judges—Yao Chen, Jia Guoping, Dong Liqiang, Judit Varga, and Wolfgang Suppan—a total of 12 works were selected to promote to the semi-finals.

On July 18, 2025, the jury held an online meeting. The 5 preliminary round judges have made the final confirmation of the 12 works to promote to the semi-finals. The following works have been admitted:

Arranged in alphabetical order according to the initial letter of the selected composers' surnames

1. Bi Mingjie - Bifurcation II: beneath the shards

2. Hu Yihao - 无止境脉搏 / Unstoppable Pulse

3. Jin Yuhao - No retreat back!

4. Liu Bingkai - 时空的祭坛 / The Spacetime Mandala

5. Mao Yuxuan - 原始迁徙 / Primordial Migrations

6. Thomas Pennisi - Sonus/lumen

7. Shi Zhuoyun - 沙时计绉 / Hourglass crease

8. Xu Chenxuan - 霜林醉

9. Yao Jiaxu - 时间瞬影

10. Zhang Yibei - 聆・天籁五象 / Listening to Five Images of Natural Sounds

11. Zhang Hanyu - When the Sound Ceases, Do the Ripples of the Heart Grow Louder

12. Zhao Yiru - 二十二颗星升起 / Twenty-two stars ascending

The 12 semi-finalists should provide the scores and performance materials(parts)(PDF, UE scodo quality) before August 15,2025. All 12 works of the semi-finalists will be recorded by the faculty musicians of CCOM before Sept.15, 2025 and the recordings will be provided for the jury as an additional decision-making tool. The Jury Committee will select 6 works for the final round primarily based on judging the scores on Sept.30, 2025. The name list of 6 finalists will be announced on the official websites of the Competition, UE and mdw on Oct.1, 2025.

The preliminary round judges of the 2025 International Competition for Young Composers

Judit Varga

Hungarian-born Judit Varga is a Vienna-based classical music composer, film composer, pianist, and university professor. She collaborates with renowned orchestras and ensembles from around the world, including Ensemble Modern, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, and Riot Ensemble London.

She has composed music for over 30 theater performances and films. In 2013, 2014, and 2020, she was nominated by the AustrianFilm Academy in the category of "Best Soundtrack." Her films are showcased at the most prestigious international A-festivals.

In 2016, the Hungarian State Opera commissioned and premiered her opera "Love in Budapest" with great success. For her outstanding contributions to contemporary Hungarian music and Hungary's cultural life, she was awarded the Béla Bartók – Ditta Pásztory Prize in 2017.

In 2022, Varga received the Outstanding Artist Award for her achievements in the field of music from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture.

Since 2019, she has been a university professor of composition and media composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw).

Wolfgang Suppan

Wolfgang Suppan (born 1966 in Vöcklabruck, Austria) is a prominent Austrian composer known for his innovative contributions to contemporary music. Since the 1990s, he has drawn attention with his experimental sound language and interdisciplinary openness. Suppan studied composition and theory with Dieter Kaufmann and Michael Jarrell at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, with further studies in Berlin, Salzburg, and at IRCAM in Paris.

Since 1996, he has taught at the University of Music in Vienna, offering courses in composition and historical counterpoint. In 1997, he served as artistic director of the “Kulturspektakel” in Vienna, a key platform for contemporary music.

Suppan’s music combines instrumental sound, live electronics, and computer-assisted composition (CAC). He explores the poetic potential of algorithmic processes, often using mathematical models to generate harmonic structures. His work reflects a dialogue between intuition and formal systems. Notable pieces like the “Idyll” series and the ensemble work Welten … auseinander (2021/22) draw from science and imagery — the latter integrates texts by Galileo Galilei and astronaut Jim Lovell.

His wide-ranging oeuvre includes orchestral works (Alea, Phase/Idyll IV), chamber music (Ulam for two bass clarinets, Duett III), solo pieces (Regenbild, Influx), and vocal and staged works such as Engel aus Feuer. His piece Ulam became internationally known through performances by the duo Stump–Linshalm.

Suppan has received numerous honors: the Alban Berg Foundation Scholarship (1992), the Austrian Ministry’s Award of Excellence and Theodor Körner Prize (1995), the City of Vienna Advancement Prize (2000), and artist residencies in Stuttgart, Berlin, and Zurich

Suppan is seen as a sensitive sonic explorer whose works combine experimentation with emotional resonance — offering a poetic, thought-provoking voice in 21st-century music.

JIA Guoping

JIA Guoping – Composer, Professor of Composition at the Central Conservatory of Music. Chief expert of “Research on the Chineseness of Music Composition”, the Major Program of National Social Science Foundation of China. Scholarship of the German Foundation for Higher Academic Exchange (DAAD). Young Teachers Award of the Fok Ying-Tong Education Foundation in the Higher Education Institutions of China. Excellent Teacher Award of Baosteel Education Foundation. Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China. Golden School Emblem Award of Central Conservatory of Music. The 16th Award for Outstanding Teachers by Institutions of Higher Learning Under the Jurisdiction of Beijing.

Representative works: Whispers of a Gentle Wind, The Pine-Soughing Valleys, The Wind Passing Through the Vast World, Landscape, Ling Lai (Listen to the Sounds of Nature), Ningbo Suite, Eternal River, etc.

DONG Liqiang

Composer, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the Composition Department of the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM), Director of the Composition and Music Theory Teaching and Research Office.

A graduate of the Composition Department at the Central Conservatory of Music and Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan, Dong Liqiang's musical creations span a wide range of genres, including orchestral music, chamber music, vocal music, dance, film, and television scores. His works cover diverse themes and exhibit a rich variety of artistic styles and forms, characterized by a distinctive and prominent personal touch. They have been performed and published both in China and internationally.