Henry Wang ‘28, a composer and first-year student at Brown University, won The American Prize in Composition—choral music (high school division—shorter works) for 2024, according to the organization’s announcement on November 7, 2024. Wang composed and submitted "I Felt a Funeral in my Brain" prior to his start at Brown University. Congratulations, Henry! More information about Henry and The American Prize follow below.

Henry Wang (b. 2005) is a rising composer and improviser whose musical influences include minimal music and jazz music. Drawing on his interest in computer science and nature, Wang often explores the relationship between humanity and technology and the interplay of music and its surrounding soundscape. His compositions have been performed worldwide, including Jordan Hall in Boston, Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, and Pacific Spirit United Church in Vancouver. Wang’s works are also frequently featured in Yamaha International JOC Selection, an annual show of approximately 15 original musical works. Wang was invited to attend the 2018 Yamaha JOC Master Class in Singapore as the sole representative of China and won the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s 16th Biennial Young Composers’ Competition, Secondary Division, in 2023. He graduated from Beijing Academy in 2024 and is now a freshman at Brown University, continuing his composition studies with Wang Lu. His previous mentors include Zheng Xu and Tiange Zhou.

The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation's most comprehensive series of contests in the performing arts. The American Prize is unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, directors, ensembles and composers in the United States at professional, college/university, community and high school levels, based on submitted recordings. Now in its fourteenth year, The American Prize was founded in 2010 and is awarded annually in many areas of the performing arts. Thousands of artists from all fifty states have derived benefit from their participation in the contests of The American Prize, representing literally hundreds of communities and arts organizations across the nation. (http://theamericanprize.org)