UMKC’s Composition program is one of the leading programs in North America with 50-60 majors (freshman through doctoral). Faculty include Chen Yi, Zhou Long, James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, and Reynold Simpson all of whom combine active careers as composers with their teaching. 

Our faculty have received Fromm Foundation and Koussevitzky Commissions (Mobberley, Chen Yi and Zhou Long); a Charles Ives Living Award (Chen Yi); membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Chen Yi); Rome Prize Fellowship (Mobberley and Rudy); Bourges Prize and ems Prize (Rudy); BBC Masterprize and 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Music (Zhou Long).  Our students and graduates have also won teaching positions, awards and commissions, including:

• Guggenheim Fellowship
• Barlow Prize
• Fulbright Fellowships (Sweden, New Zealand)
• ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composers Awards
• American Composers Orchestra Underwood Readings/EarShot Readings
• Young Composers Project China International Composition Competition
• Residencies and Workshops, dozens, including the Wellesley College Composers Conference, Aspen Music Festival, June-in-Buffalo, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Fontainbleau, the Cortona Sessions (Italy), and many others
• Positions at Louisiana State, Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Mahidol University (Thailand), Southern Methodist University, Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing, China), Kansas City, Kansas Community College, Arkansas State University, Xinghai Conservatory, Guangzhou, China, Hong Kong Academy, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore, Tainan National University of the Arts, Taiwan, and Montana State to name a few.

They are very active in all areas of composition, including teaching, serving as composer-in-residence for orchestras, free-lancing, film, and other commercial work.