Young Composers Project students at Oregon Symphony Orchestra Celebration Concert recognizing YCP’s contribution to exceptional Portland music education.
About the Young Composers Project (YCP)
Fear No Music’s Young Composers Project (YCP) offers groundbreaking composition mentorship for students in grades 5–12 who are passionate about creating music—whether as a future career or lifelong pursuit.
Participants work closely with some of the Pacific Northwest’s leading professional musicians and composers. Through a year-long series of workshops and live public performances, young composers develop their craft and voices.
Photo by Kateshia Pendergrass
Young Composers Project offers:
A supportive creative community for young composers
Hands-on mentorship from professional musicians and composers
Foundational knowledge of orchestral instruments and their capabilities
Opportunities to perform and record original works in public concerts
Audience-building support for emerging voices
Career guidance for students interested in composition, including help developing a professional portfolio
Young Composers Project: 29th Season
2026-27 Dates
TBD. Please check back soon.
YCP 2026–2027 Applications Coming Soon!
Thank you for your interest in the Young Composers Project.
2026-27 Applications open soon.
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As the co-founder of Fear No Music alongside percussionist Joel Bluestone, pianist Jeff Payne has performed with the group across the United States including concerts in New York City, California, Colorado, and throughout the Pacific Northwest. During his tenure as Artistic Director, he was responsible for the presentation of twenty World Premiere or US Premiere performances of works by Pacific Northwest composers. In 1997 he founded the Young Composers Workshop to expand upon the mission of Fear No Music, and continues as its Director, overseeing the development of young creative minds around the country.
Heralded as “a pianist of chameleon abilities,” (The Boston Globe) Payne’s illustrious performance career includes appearances on WGBH National Public Radio in Boston, KING radio in Seattle, All Classical Portland, and OPB, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Norton Gallery in Palm Beach, at the Seattle Spring Festival, the Ernest Bloch Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, and as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony. His phenomenally executed complete performance of Messiaen’s epic Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus received recognition by The Oregonian as one of the “Ten Best Concerts of 2008.”
Payne graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and holds a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory. His teaching career includes posts at Willamette University, Portland State University and currently at Reed College.
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Portland-based composer Ryan Francis’s music has been described as having an “aggressively original musical language that uses nuance, precision and stylistic-variance to create music that is at once lush, probing and inventive.” (WQXR) His work has received grants and awards including from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Jerome Foundation, and the Augustine Foundation.
Recent and ongoing projects include Voynich Transcriptions for clarinetist James Shields, The Living Fabric, a collaboration with violinist and composer Emily Wells, Prophet Cycle for the Prophet-6 synthesizer with pianist Conor Hanick, and Quartet for four monophonic synthesizers. Francis’s works for dance include two ballets with choreographer Pontus Lidberg, SNOW (2015), and Stream (2013). Francis has also collaborated with artists of diverse media, including artist Nancy Davidson and artist/writer Andrew Hussie.
Commissions include the American Composers Orchestra, the Banff Centre of Canada, Metropolis Ensemble, Fear No Music Ensemble, Chatter, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, El-Sakia String Orchestra of Cairo, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Columbia Symphony of Portland, Pacific Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theater, New Juilliard Ensemble, and the New York Youth Symphony. Francis’s music for piano is available from Tzadik Records, performed by Vicky Chow.
2026-27 Young Composers Project is made possible by the generous support of:
Private donors of the arts and music
