The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress has awarded commissions for new musical works to six composers. The commissions are granted jointly by the foundation and the performing organizations that will present the world premiere of each work.

Winning composers for 2026 and the groups co-sponsoring their commissions are: Utku Asuroglu and Ensemble Dal Niente; Pascale Criton and Ghost Ensemble; Malika Kishino and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music; Reinaldo Moya and the Chiarina Chamber Players; Peter S. Shin and the Del Sol String Quartet; and Errollyn Wallen and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The Library and the Koussevitzky Foundation are honored to have been chosen by the American Academy of Arts and Letters to offer two composer grants in 2026 made possible by the Otto and Catherine Brunson Luening Awards Fund. Composers selected for this distinction are Maliko Kishino and Errollyn Wallen. The new commissions will be dedicated to renowned composer Otto Luening (1900-1996) and his wife, music teacher Catherine Brunson Luening (1922-2021). 

The Koussevitzky Foundation again granted a commission in memory of composer Andrew W. Imbrie (1921-2007), a longtime member of the board. This commission, inaugurated in 2021, is made possible through a generous gift from Barbara Cushing Imbrie and Andrew Philip Imbrie. Composer Pascale Criton, sponsored by Ghost Ensemble, is the 2026 recipient of the Imbrie commission.

2026 Koussevitzky Commission Recipients

Utku Asuroglu

Composer Utku Asuroglu has received numerous distinguished international recognitions, including a Guggenheim fellowship, the Irino Prize, and the Salvatore Martriano Composition Award, among others. Asuroglu pursued music studies in the Netherlands, Germany, and France before earning his doctorate from Stanford University. His works have been featured at international festivals and performed by numerous leading ensembles, such as the orchestra of Radio France, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Moderne, Talea Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, and Ensemble Linea.  Asuroglu’s Koussevitzky commission will result in a work for large mixed ensemble, written for Ensemble Dal Niente. He is assistant professor of composition at the University of Missouri School of Music and assistant artistic director of the Mizzou International Composers Festival. The composer’s works are published by Edition Gravis, Berlin.

Pascale Criton

Composer and musicologist Pascale Criton has spent much of her career investigating the principles of microtonal sound and studying human perception of these sounds.  Her compositions are the result of her investigations into these specialized sound worlds.  Born in Paris, Criton studied music and musical computing in France and other European centers for electronic and contemporary music. She expanded her work into ethnomusicology, taking part in the Groupe de Recherche sur la Tradition Orale (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire). Criton was a member of the Théâtre Musical des Ulis, an important French performing arts collective producing avant-garde, multidisciplinary works that combined music, theater and dance, with experimental sound and visual elements. She is a longtime collaborator with the Waves and Acoustics Laboratory at the School of Physics and Industrial Chemistry in Paris. Criton’s new work for chamber ensemble work will be written for the U.S.-based group Ghost Ensemble.

Malika Kishino

Malika Kishino was born and raised in a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. Now based in Cologne, Germany, she studied composition and electronic music in Paris. Her music spans solo, chamber, orchestral and electroacoustic works. Major festivals and ensembles have featured and commissioned her works, including Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wittener Tage, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain and Ensemble Musikfabrik. Kishino’s many awards include the Rome Prize granted by the German Academy in Rome and the Otaka Prize of the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Her works are published by SZ Sugar (formerly Edizioni Suvini Zerboni). The composer is commissioned to write a cello concerto for the orchestra of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. The concerto, called “What the Thunder Said,” will be based on Kishino’s smaller, earlier work of the same name.

Reinaldo Moya

Composer Reinaldo Moya, associate professor of music at Wellesley College, will write a new piece for the Washington, D.C.-based ensemble Chiarina Chamber Players.  From his early training in Venezuela to performances at major venues in the U.S. and abroad, Moya’s work bridges classical tradition with the rhythms and complexity of modern Latin America. Moya, a graduate of the Juilliard School, is a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow. Other awards include a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Copland House Residency Award. He served as composer-in-residence of the Chicago Philharmonic and the famed Schubert Club of Minneapolis-St. Paul. His works range from solo pieces and chamber music to orchestra works and operas, including those commissioned by the Schubert Club and the Minnesota Opera. 

Peter S. Shin

Peter S. Shin is a Guggenheim Fellow and 2025-26 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. He received both the Charles Ives Scholarship and Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; a Fulbright Research Grant to South Korea; residency fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, and Loghaven; and commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, American Composers Forum, and Chamber Music America. Shin’s works have also been commissioned by performing groups including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Kronos Quartet. His work “Bits torn from words” appears on Roomful of Teeth’s GRAMMY Award-winning album “Rough Magic.” A resident of Los Angeles, Shin is commissioned to write a new string quartet for the San-Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet. 

Errollyn Wallen

Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen was appointed Master of the King’s Music in 2024, the first Black person to hold the royal position, having previously been made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2020 for her services to music. Her distinguished works list includes 22 operas, alongside numerous orchestral, chamber, and vocal works which are performed and broadcast worldwide. Her hallmark style joins multiple genres of music, including classical, jazz, and pop. Recent works include a violin concerto for Phillipe Quint, choreographed by Cathy Marston for the 100th anniversary celebrations of The Royal Ballet School.  Her new opera, “A Christmas Miracle,” will premiere later this year produced by Mahogany Opera and Britten Pears Arts, based on Benjamin Britten’s unrealized plans for a community opera. Wallen’s Koussevitzky commission will be a concerto for orchestra, written for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

About the Koussevitzky Foundation Commissions

Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949, was a leading champion of contemporary music. Throughout his distinguished career, he played a vital role in the creation of new works by commissioning composers such as Béla Bartók, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky. He established the Koussevitzky Foundation in 1942 and passed operations to the Library of Congress in 1949 to continue his lifelong commitment to composers and new music. Original manuscripts of works commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation comprise an integral part of the Library’s unparalleled music collections. The Koussevitzky Foundation has commissioned 496 works, many universally recognized as standards of music literature.

Applications for commissions are accepted annually. The next deadline for submissions is Jan. 15, 2027. Please visit koussevitzky.org for more information.

Media Contact: Elaina Finkelstein, efinkelstein@loc.gov

PR 26-047
07/21/2026
ISSN 0731-3527