Composer Ethan Wickman Named Winner of the 2026 Ariel Bybee Endowment Prize at the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts
The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts is pleased to announce composer Ethan Wickman as the winner of the Ariel Bybee Endowment 2026 Prize, which this year honors choral music.
The winning composition will be developed in collaboration with Dr. Brady Allred, artistic director and conductor of the Salt Lake Vocal Artists. It will be premiered in 2027 by the distinguished choir upon its completion.
When asked about the opportunity to work with the winning composer, Allred said he is “thrilled” with the outcome. “The choral world will soon add another dynamic and exciting work to the repertoire, and the Salt Lake Vocal Artists and I will share it throughout the world!”
Ethan Wickman is a composer and performer whose music fuses expressive lyricism, Western harmonic richness, and modal inflections drawn from Middle Eastern traditions. His works—praised by The New York Times for “facility and imagination”—include oratorios (To a Village Called Emmaus), the cantata Ballads of the Borderland, and Shimmers of Byzantium, inspired by W.B. Yeats. Wickman’s compositions have been performed internationally and commissioned by the Barlow Endowment, American Composers Forum, and Utah Arts Festival. Honors include the Jacob Druckman Prize at Aspen. He is Professor of Composition at the University of Texas at San Antonio and former Executive Director of the Barlow Endowment.
His winning proposal will give musical voice to Rumi’s luminous text “Welcome, Sweet Melody!” and express the poem’s themes of transformation and renewal. The composition traces an “arc of spiritual motion” from silence to renewal, beginning with shimmering piano textures that give way to layered choral entrances, as though music itself is stirring a quiet world back to life.
Rumi’s writing captured Wickman’s imagination immediately. “Ultimately, this work is my attempt to honor music’s mysterious ability to awaken, elevate, and transform—not merely as sound, but as a living force that roots itself in the soul,” said the composer of the proposed work.
Three finalists for the 2026 Ariel Bybee Endowment at the Center were also selected:
Daniel Bradshaw (Provo, UT)
Andrew Maxfield (Provo, UT)
Benjamin Salisbury (San Gabriel, CA)
Finalists were selected by the jury as standouts among the almost three dozen notable submissions from North America, South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.
“One of the glories of LDS culture is its rich choral music tradition, which goes back to its earliest days in the West,” says Glen Nelson, special projects director and co-founder of the Center. “It's an honor to take an active hand in nurturing and commissioning these fine artists.”
Established in 2021, the Endowment celebrates the legacy of distinguished mezzo-soprano Ariel Bybee by commissioning new works across nine rotating disciplines associated with various highlights of Bybee’s career.
The 2026 prize winner and finalists were selected by a notable jury:
Dr. Brady R. Allred – Artistic Director & Conductor, Salt Lake Choral Artists, Utah
Josu Elberdin – Composer, Professor of Music, Pasaia Musikal, Spain
Dan Forrest – Composer, South Carolina
Neylan McBaine – Non-profit Leader, Marketing Executive, Salt Lake City
Dr. Daniel McDavitt – Conductor and Composer, Connecticut
Dr. Lauren Adja Tian – Conductor and Pianist, Utah
The Center’s Studio Podcast S2E6:
Ethan Wickman's Oratorio, To a Village Called Emmaus
