Japanese composer Aya Yoshida has won the 2019 Zemlinsky Prize, an international initiative of the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music that promotes and encourages the development of young composers. Yoshida was awarded the prize – which includes US $30,000, a commercially produced recording of the work, and a commission for a dance piece – for her 10-minute orchestral work DOUBLE FACE.

Aya Yoshida. Photo © Kazue

The second prize of $20,000 went to Tomasz Skweres, 34, a Polish composer living in Vienna, for his piece über das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne… while the third prize of $10,000 was awarded to 24-year-old Joel Jäventausta, a Finnish composer based in London, for his piece, Cantus.

The Zemlinsky Prize, named for the composer Alexander Zemlinsky, was established in 1990 and has been awarded every six or seven years, with previous winners including Ulrich Kreppein, Narong Prangcharoen, and Moritz Eggert. The Prize has now also announced a new Zemlinsky Prize for Chamber Music, which will be awarded in 2022 and will then run in alternation with the Orchestral Prize, ensuring there will be a Zemlinsky Prize every three or four years.

This year’s competition received more than...