Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Winter 2026 7 SAIs In The News By Mellissa Lessure and Becky Catelinet Pittsburgh PA Alumnae Chapter The 2025 Margaret Blackburn Biennial Composition Competition, held by the Pittsburgh PA Alumnae Chapter, announces Alyssa Regent as the 2025 winner. Alyssa's winning composition is Mors Osculi, scored for voice, flutes, clarinets, harp, electric guitar, violin, cello, double bass, and electronics. The award is $1,000. The Blackburn Biennial Composition Competition is in honor and memory of Margaret Blackburn, composer of the Sigma Alpha Iota Chorale. She was a founding member of the Pittsburgh Alumnae Chapter and passed away in 1996. The competition is open to female composers enrolled in an accredited university or college undergraduate or graduate degree program. Alyssa Regent (b. 1995) is a New York– based composer originally from the islands of Guadeloupe. She has participated in several music festivals and programs, such as the 77th Composer's Conference, String Quartet Evolution at the Banff Center (Canada), New Music on the Point, and the Lucerne Music Festival (Switzerland). She has studied composition with Suzanne Farrin (1999 Blackburn Competition winner), David Fulmer, Marcos Balter, and George Lewis, and is currently pursuing a DMA at Columbia University. Her music has been performed by several New York–based ensembles and soloists. The judge for the competition was SAI Friend of the Arts Alex Marthaler, a Pittsburgh-based composer, pianist, and educator. His compositions have garnered praise for their color and translucency, often drawing inspiration from both natural and man-made structures and phenomena. As an educator, Marthaler is an artist lecturer at the Carnegie Mellon School of Music, teaching courses in orchestration, composition, and theory. He is also the director of the CMU School of Music Pre-College program, a renowned summer program catering to high- school musicians from around the world, and is Executive Director of the Dalcroze Society of America. Marthaler said selecting a winner was difficult "because many pieces were quite strong! But in the end, Mors Osculi emerged as the most compelling. It was absolutely exceptional. This was a piece that stayed with me long after I finished listening. It's mature and confident, and a perfect example of how compositional skill and extramusical ideas can combine to create something greater than the sum of their parts." Winner of the 2025 Margaret Blackburn Biennial Composition Competition Announced Alyssa Regent Alyssa Regent

• Cover