7 out of 10 composer-in-residence alums have gone on to win the Rome Prize
Young American Composer-in-Residence
Applications for the 2026-2029 Young American Composer-in-Residence open August 1, 2025.
Renowned among composers and conductors across the US, this intensely competitive residency provides an American composer with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate with Music Director, Donato Cabrera, and the California Symphony over three consecutive years to create, rehearse, premiere, and record three major orchestra compositions, one each season. Part of the California Symphony since 1991, every three years a new composer is selected, and every alum has gone on to win top honors and accolades in the field.
Current Resident Composer
After a competitive selection process, Saad Haddad was selected as the 2023-2026 Young American Composer-in-Residence. Saad explores the intersections of cultural identity through his music, employing a distinctive blend of Western art music and Middle Eastern musical traditions. Recent projects and accolades include:
Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Barlow Endowment General Commission, and the S&R Foundation Washington Award Grand Prize.
He has also participated in residencies the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Bogliasco Foundation.
Dr. Haddad serves on the faculties of Columbia University and New Jersey City University
The California Symphony has one of the most outstanding composer-in-residence programs in the country. They have this orchestra-as-laboratory idea, and they let the composer work in ways that almost never happen anywhere else.” —Mason Bates, Composer-in-Residence 2007-2010
Program Alumni
Since the residency was established in 1991, ten talented Americans have completed the program:
2020-2023 Commission with the New York Philharmonic, 2020 Inaugural “Sandbox” Residency with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence with the Pacific Symphony, 2022-23 Winner of the Barlow Prize, William D. Revelli Prize, Frederick Fennell Prize, Walter Beeler Memorial Prize, Barlow Endowment Commission, ASCAP Morton Gould Composers Award, Theodore Presser Foundation Award, Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composers Award, Cortona Prize, New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, and Boston GuitarFest Composition Prize.
2017-2020 2020 Winner–Rome Prize Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2020 Career Advancement Award Past Winner American Modern Ensemble 8th Annual Composition Competition’s first prize Past winner American Conservatory at Fontainebleau’s prix du composition Past winner Albany Symphony Orchestra’s “Composer to Center Stage” competition Past winner Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Scholarship
2014–2017 2015 Winner–Koussevitsky Commission Award Past Winner–Rome Prize (2013/2014) Past Winner–Barlow Prize (2008/2009) Past Winner–Naumburg Award (2010) Past Winner–Berlin Prize (2008/2009) Past Winner–Cleveland Arts Prize Awards–BMI, ASCAP, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Society of Composers, and the Naumburg Foundation
2011–2014 BMI—Foundation/Boudleaux Bryant Fund commission (for Eighth Blackbird) 2000 BMI—Student Composer Awards 1995, 2000 BMG/Williams College—National Young Composers Competition, Grand Prize 1997 Howard Hanson Large Ensemble Prize (Eastman School of Music) 1997 Howard Hanson Orchestra Prize (Eastman School of Music) 1996 League of Composers/ISCM Composers’ Competition Winner 2009 Richmond Symphony—Composer-in-Residence 2009-2011
2007–2010 Past winner—Rome Prize in Composition Chicago Symphony—Composer in Residence 2010–2015 Kennedy Center—Composer in Residence 2015–2016 Grammy Award Winner—Best Opera 2019
1999–2002 2001 winner—International Masterprize in Composition 2002–2005 Composer in Residence—Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Past winner—Rome Prize in Composition 2007 winner—Stoeger Prize from Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center 2010 winner American Academy of Arts and Letter in Composition
