15-year old Composer
“…inventive and original.
The array of orchestral gestures
is, frankly, stunning.
...impressive and masterfully done."
Albert Mendoza, Alfred Music
Short Bio
Winston F. Schneider (b. 2007) is an award-winning young American composer. He's received an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and is a national first place winner of three major composition competitions, MTNA, NAfME and NFMC. He was a MATA Jr. composer, which the New Yorker calls “the most exciting showcase for outstanding young composers from around the world.” He had his first debut of an 11-minute full orchestra work with a professional orchestra when he was 11, a work he wrote at age 10. He was the youngest composer ever to be in Curtis Institute of Music’s summer program.
He’s written music that’s been premiered in NYC, Dallas, Cleveland, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Omaha and more. He's had commissions and premieres by the Omaha Symphony, the Grammy Award-winning New York Youth Symphony, the Steamboat Symphony Orchestra, Face the Music (NYC’s premiere youth ensemble), Ars Futura (Cleveland based contemporary music ensemble), Orchestra Omaha, SoundWaves String Orchestra, Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory ensemble, numerous string quartets and ensembles, as well as solo performances on a variety of different instruments, including by virtuosic flutist, Mimi Stillman. His orchestra works have been conducted by Maestros Ernest Richardson, Ankush Kumar Bahl, Na'Zir McFadden, and David Bloom. He made his Masterworks debut with the Omaha Symphony in 2022.
With an early abilities of perfect pitch, transposing in his head, and sometimes, for fun, simultaneously playing piano with each hand in a different key with his eyes closed, Schneider began composing at age 5.
He’s been featured on PBS’s News Hour’s "Arts Canvas," as well as two Nebraska Public Media feature stories, one which won a “Heartland Emmy.”
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