Hometown: Crystal, Minn.

Composition: Last Snow

Why do you like to compose?

I like to compose because it gives me a outlet for emotion that I can't express any other way. My goals as a composer are to keep growing with music, to keep expressing those emotions and to keep challenging myself. My piece is a choral rendition of Last Snow by Heid E. Erdrich. My parents always played great composers' works to me when I was young, and what really stuck with me most was Arvo Pärt and John Rutter's work, so I was heavily inspired by them.