The Frost Composition Competition is presented in honor of Dennis Kam, Professor Emeritus at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, and Chair of Composition/Theory for more than three decades. He retired in May 2013 and passed away on December 25, 2018. While at Frost, he founded and conducted The Other Music Ensemble; a contemporary music ensemble with the primary mission of being a resource for young composers. Kam was passionate about the role of music in the community and had long been dedicated to the development of young composers and musicians.
The Frost School of Music at the University of Miami is one of the largest and best music schools located in a private university in the U.S., and one of the most comprehensive in all of higher education. Known for its aesthetic diversity and openness to the wide variety of options existing in the ever-changing and progressive world of composition, the Composition Program at the Frost School of Music has a long tradition of distinguished faculty, alumni, and students. Faculty members in Composition include Dorothy Hindman, Juraj Kojs, Charles Norman Mason, Lansing McLoskey, Shawn Crouch, and Scott Stinson. Our past distinguished composers-in-residence were Melinda Wagner (2019) and George Lewis (2020), Tania Leon (2021), Anthony Davis (2022).
