Music composition students receive Yee Prize

Three Virginia Tech students who have demonstrated excellence in music composition have earned the 2025 Jessie S. Yee Prize: Justin Winn, A.J. Fucito, and Zee Myrthil.

In honor of Jessie S. Yee, an avid supporter of the arts, Chemistry Associate Professor Gordon Yee established the annual student music composition competition for the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts with the help of Music Associate Professor Charles Nichols.

This spring, each student composer who entered the competition submitted an audio or video recording of their best composition for consideration.

Submissions were adjudicated by the winning composer of the Yee Memorial Commission, Takuma Itoh. The Yee Commission, also provided by Yee, allows professional musicians funds to compose works specifically for the School of Performing Arts’ faculty to premiere.

First prize in the competition was awarded to Winn, a senior music and computer engineering major, for Three Short Movements for cello and piano. “Its three contrasting movements, ‘Introduction,’ ‘Passacaglia,’ and ‘Perpetuum mobile,’ were somewhat informed by my memory of childhood naïveté,” said Winn. “Inspiration also came from works such as Alban Berg's opera ‘Lulu,’ Dimitri Shostakovich's string quartets, and the TV cartoon ‘Avatar.’

"As a computer engineering major, I am pursuing a career in the field of embedded systems and eventually hope to obtain a master's degree in embedded systems or robotics," said Winn. “I will continue to participate in music performance whenever possible and will continue to write music. My goal is to write a piece of theatre music in the same vein as composers such as Kurt Weill, Alban Berg, and Stephen Sondheim.”

Fucito, a first-year student majoring in creative technologies in music composition, was awarded second prize. “For my piece ‘In the Garden of Everything,’” said Fucito, “I aimed to break free from the traditional bounds of composition, where certain styles follow general guidelines that, while not strict rules, are seldom abandoned. I wanted to show that music doesn’t have to fit within a single genre, and that the mixture of many separate musical conventions creates a contrast that, in and of itself, is beautiful.

"I would describe the piece as having three main sections, with a fourth serving as an outro that condenses the key themes into a single part. The first section is the most serious, initially drawing from traditional orchestral music, but it quickly breaks those expectations with the addition of a heavier, more industrial electronic sound palette. The second section contrasts sharply, adopting a more playful and lighthearted tone while still building on elements from the first. It takes inspiration from swing music and updates it with the same electronic style. The third section is most directly influenced by 80s synth-pop, which also serves as the transition into the outro. The outro brings all these elements together, adding a more emotional layer before finally concluding.

"As for future plans, the response to my composition has motivated me to develop a full-length project that expands on the themes introduced in this piece. I’m excited to experiment with even more diverse genres and sounds and want to create music that pushes conventional boundaries while still maintaining structural cohesion.”

Myrthil, a junior majoring in entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology management and music composition, received third prize for his composition “Robotnik.” “'Robotnik’ is a strong piece made for the Vêtement De Rue  Fashion Show that occurred on April 1,” said Myrthil. “This track is inspired by the raw mechanics of industrial sound and the roots of experimental electronic music.

"Inspired by the legacy of elektronische musik and early industrial pioneers, I set out to capture the unpredictability and experimentation of early electronic music through purely digital synthesis, distortion, and raw waveform manipulation. The warped genius of Doctor Robotnik from the Sonic franchise also inspired me to build something jagged, unpredictable, and alive with chaos. I chose the name ‘Robotnik’ because before Sega softened him into ‘Doctor Eggman,’ he was a villain obsessed with domination through cold, complex machinery and the erasure of individuality. Sonic Underground showed us the fear in that vision: robotized humans, emotion stripped, rhythm turned into tyranny. That imagery is conjured through this track, and I translated all of these inspirations into an industrial hip-hop track.”

“The Yee Prize is an opportunity to highlight the musical talent of student composers across the Virginia Tech campus," Nichols said. "In the School of Performing Arts, we are grateful to Gordon Yee for funding the annual prize, along with the annual commission for professional composers.”

“Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all of the students who submitted their entries," Yee said. "My mom would be pleased to be encouraging young musical talent.”

All undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled at Virginia Tech, regardless of degree or school, are eligible to submit their music composition, in any genre or medium. The composers of the three winning compositions receive $500, $250, and $100, respectively.