Composer
“…inventive and original.
The array of orchestral gestures
is, frankly, stunning.
...impressive and masterfully done."
Albert Mendoza, Alfred Music
"absolutely incredible...
like standing on the shoulders of giants and then taking the next step."
Paul Cravens
Winston F. Schneider is an 18-year-old award-winning American composer of contemporary classical music. Acclaimed for his masterful orchestration and large-scale symphonic works, he is especially recognized for his imaginative insect-inspired compositions, emerging as a compelling new voice in 21st-century concert music.
His works have been performed across the country by the Grammy-nominated Omaha Symphony, the Grammy Award-winning New York Youth Symphony, Sempre Musick Orchestra (Boston), the Steamboat Symphony Orchestra (CO), Face the Music (NYC’s premiere youth ensemble), Chamber Project Saint Louis, New York Virtuoso Singers, Ars Futura (Cleveland based contemporary music ensemble), Orchestra Omaha, Soundbox Ventures (Sarasota, FL), and numerous chamber ensembles, youth orchestras and soloists, including virtuosic flutist Mimi Stillman.
His orchestra works have been conducted by Maestros Ernest Richardson, Ankush Kumar Bahl, Alejandro Gómez Guillén, Na'Zir McFadden, David Bloom, and Aviva Segall.
Most recently, in 2025, he won the American Prize in both the Instrumental Chamber Music and Orchestral divisions. Other national wins include MTNA, NAfME, NFMC, Sempre Musick, and Global Musical Arts. He has been a MATA Jr. composer, which the New Yorker calls “the most exciting showcase for outstanding young composers from around the world.” He has also received an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Honorable Mention and was named an Emerging Composer by Tribeca New Music.
In 2024, Schneider received a Davidson Fellows Scholarship, recognized by Forbes as “one of the nation’s most prestigious undergraduate scholarship,” and was the only recipient in the field of music. He has been featured on the nationally broadcast radio program From the Top, PBS NewsHour’s Arts Canvas, and international online music magazine Interlude.
During the pandemic, Schneider immersed himself almost entirely in composition and score study — an intense and formative period that played a pivotal role in his artistic development.
Insects profoundly influence his music. Having caught, studied, released and catalogued over 185 species of insects, arachnids, and other crawling arthropods, his deep engagement with the miniature natural world consistently inspires his compositions. This intersection of his passions has led to invitations to speak at entomology conferences, including the Entomological Society of America’s regional conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, and its international conference in Portland, Oregon (2025).
His dedication to the natural world extends to advocacy for conservation and endangered species. His newest project, Endangered Menagerie, is a multidisciplinary conservation initiative centered around an eight-movement contemporary chamber piece of the same name. It is scheduled for release in 2026.
Deeply appreciative of the significant impact his music education has had on his life, Schneider co-founded Music Marathon 4 Music Education, an annual fundraising event that supports the String Sprouts program, which provides lessons and instruments for kids at little to no cost to families. Now in its third year, MM4ME is entirely organized by a board of student musicians and has raised $10,000 to date.
A pianist and cellist, Schneider was named Global Musical Arts' Outstanding Performer of the Year in 2023 for his performance of Prokofiev's Diabolical Suggestion. He’s a four-time MTNA Nebraska piano performance winner and a 2024 MTNA Regional piano duet winner.
Lastly, his fantasy football team went undefeated (18-0) in the 2025-26 season.
NEW MUSIC PROJECT
Release date: June, 2026
Endangered Menagerie is a multidisciplinary arts and conservation initiative that uses modern classical chamber music, education and outreach to tell the stories of endangered species. The piece is comprised of eight movements: The Salt Creek Tiger Beetle, The Ocelot, The California Condor, The Wolverine, The Axolotl, The Piping Plover, The Loggerhead Turtle, and The Christmas Island Pipistrelle. Each movement tells the story of a different endangered animal (except for the Pipistrelle, which is extinct).
Endangered Menagerie is a call to action that weaves together music and storytelling to inspire empathy and awareness—uniting music and conservation to protect what is fragile and vanishing.
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