BMI Wraps Second Annual Composer Lab With Eight Emerging Composers

BMI concluded its second annual BMI Composer Lab, bringing together eight emerging composers for an immersive program filled with top tier mentorship, hands-on workshops and real-world industry insights.

Led by acclaimed composer and former director of the Sundance Film Music Program Peter Golub, and BMI's VP of Film, TV & Visual Media Tracy McKnight, the 2026 class worked closely with a roster of celebrated BMI composers and leading industry executives. The participants wrapped the program with an orchestral recording and mixing session with The Hollywood Cinematic Orchestra at Nathan Barr's Bandrika Studios.

'Seeing this year's class of composers step into the room with such excitement and eagerness to learn and leave with a newfound confidence and creative relationships has been incredibly rewarding,' said McKnight. 'Peter's guidance, along with the mentorship from our advisors, made all the difference, and I can't wait to see where these composers go next.'

This year's participants included Wesley Amorim, Andreu Diport, Christa Duggan, Yaron Eigenstein, Danahyah Evans, Jason Fujita, Geneviève Gros-Louis, and Ana Krstajić. World-renowned BMI composers served as mentors, including Jina Hyojin An, Nathan Barr, Kathryn Bostic, Rock Burwell, Miriam Cutler, Mychael Danna, Fil Eisler, Kurt Farquhar, Harry Gregson-Williams, James Newton Howard, Tom Howe, Mark Isham, Jesper Kyd, Camilo Lara, Dominic Lewis, Ryan Lott, Sandro Morales-Santoro, John Murphy, Blake Neely, Thomas Newman, Joy Ngiaw, Winifred Phillips, Lolita Ritmanis, Carlos Rafael Rivera, Ed Shearmur, Noah Sorota, Tal Wallace, Jessica Rose Weiss and Anthony Willis.

In addition, many highly regarded industry executives signed on as advisors, including Paul Broucek (President of Music at Warner Bros. Pictures), Laura Engel (Kraft-Engel), Gabe Hilfer (Music Supervisor), John Houlihan (SVP, Music for Searchlight Pictures and 20th Century Studios), Bradley Rainey (WME's head of music for visual media), Peter Rotter (Encompass Music Partners), Michelle Satter (Sundance/Artists Programs), Adam Smalley (Music Editor), Scott Smith (Music Mixer), Thanh Tran (Music Preparation), and Alex Winter (Director/Actor).

About BMI

Celebrating over 80 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is a global leader in music rights management, serving as an advocate for the value of music. BMI represents the public performance rights in over 25 million musical works created and owned by more than 1.5 million songwriters, composers, and music publishers. The Company negotiates music license agreements and distributes the fees it generates as royalties to its affiliated writers and publishers when their songs are performed in public. In 1939, BMI created a groundbreaking open-door policy becoming the only performing rights organization to welcome and represent the creators of blues, jazz, country, and American roots music. Today, the musical compositions in BMI's repertoire, from chart toppers to perennial favorites, span all genres of music and are consistently among the most-performed hits of the year. For additional information and the latest BMI news, visit bmi.com.

Photo Credit: JC Olivera for BMI