2025 Vibrant Shores prize announcement

Congratulations to our 2025 Vibrant Shores prize winner, Edmund Song! His piece, FlareStruck, will be performed at Earplay's May 25, 2026 concert at Noe Valley Ministry. Stay tuned for more details!

Earplay sponsors the annual Earplay Vibrant Shores Composers Competition, celebrating composers who identify as people of color. Earplay performs the prizewinning piece and presents a cash prize of $1,500 to the winning composer. Details on the 2026 Competition are here.

Thank you to everyone who submitted their work, and again, congratulations Edmund!

About the Composer

Edmund Song is a US-based Singaporean composer known for blending Eastern traditional music with Western influences. His work has led to collaborations with ensembles such as Akropolis Reed Quintet (USA), PRISM Saxophone Quartet (USA), Trio Manestri (Belgium), AgorArt Ensemble (Italy), and Standing Wave Ensemble (Canada).

In digital media, Edmund gained recognition when the Civic Orchestra of Chicago featured his score The Smart Dog. He has since composed for numerous films, earning a nomination for Best Original Music for Silver River (Singapore, 2023) and selections at the Independent Silent Film Festival (USA, 2024) and Film Score Fest (USA, 2025).

He is composer-arranger for One Song Orchestra (Taiwan), Composer-in-Residence for Bass Around Asia (Taiwan-Singapore), and a regular guest composer-arranger for Ding Yi Music Company (Singapore). He was previously Composer-in-Residence for the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (Singapore) and faculty at the Jacobs Composition Academy at Indiana University. Winner of Earplay’s 2025 Vibrant Shores Composers Competition, his projects include commissions with Boston New Music Initiative (BNMI) 2025, ASMAC/Helix Collective Cue Connection 2025, New Music at the Bayou 2025, RED NOTE New Music Festival 2025, and Talis Music Festival 2024. He also works as a Studio Assistant at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Recording Studio.

As a double bassist, Edmund has performed with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic, and productions of The Phantom of the Opera (2019) and Les Misérables (2016). He also appears in historical performance with Red Dot Baroque (Singapore) and the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project (USA).