Doctoral composer Omar Fraire presented his video installation To be radical is a privilege at the Museo Espacio in the city of Aguascalientes, México. The work was commissioned by the International Festival Ctrl + Ñ in collaboration with the Institute of Culture and the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, for a collective exhibition from August through September 2017. 

Doctoral composer Jacob Thiede received an Honorable Mention from the Flute New Music Consortium in the "Flute and Accompaniment" category for his composition, And Everything In-Between. The Flute New Music Consortium, Inc. is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose members live around the world and perform newly commissioned pieces and outstanding works from the composition competition in individual recitals, as well as at FNMC-organized events at regional and national flute festivals.

Landscape Series: 1 by alumnus composer Chaz Underriner (PhD 2016) is one of five works selected (out of 288 submissions from composers in 36 countries) as a finalist for the prestigious 2017 Gaudeamus Award in Composition. His work will receive a performance at the Gaudeamus Muziekweek in September 2017, at which time the award winner will be announced.

Nothing in the Nothingness, an opera by alumnus composer Daniel Zajicek, was one of eight works selected for performance in Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers 2017 program on 4-5 May 2017. As part of the performance, Daniel and his librettist, John Grimmett, will be in residence at Fort Worth Opera for a week of rehearsals and workshopping.

Alumnus composer Ben Johansen (PhD 2012) has been appointed Lecturer in Composition/Music Technology at Baylor University, beginning in the fall of 2017.

Alumnus composer Daniel Sabzghabaei's 2017 POLYPHONOS commission work The Blue Booby, on a text from James Tate, will be performed three times (6-8 October 2017) by Seattle's leading choral ensemble The Esoterics on their concert GRAVITAS: Investigating Gravity.

Alumnus composer Ilya Rostovtsev (MM 2010) has completed his PhD in Music Composition at UC Berkeley (August 2017), and has accepted a position at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) for the position of an Applied Scientist, where he will be working on new music authoring tools.

Alumnus composer Daniel Sabzghabaei (BM 2014) was selected as a VocalEssence ReMix Composer Fellow. He will be working with Minnesota's premier choral ensemble VocalEssence and composer mentor Timothy Takach in various workshop sessions on two new commissions for a cappella chorus: one will be premiered in the fall 2017 at the Minnesota ACDA conference, the other at McNally Smith College in the spring 2018.

Alumnus composer Joshua Harris (PhD 2013) composed the soundtrack for the film King Rat, which premiered at the Indy Film Fest in Indianapolis in July 2017. The film won the festival's Audience Award.  Also in July 2017, Harris' work Aubade for flute and electroacoustic music was selected for performance at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, where it was performed by UNT alumna Wayla Chambo.

Alumnus Composer Jonathan Camacho (BA 2008) recently composed the complete soundtrack to the film What Carter Lost, which premiered on ESPN on 24 August 2017 as a part of the Emmy Award Winning 30 for 30 series on ESPN. The film focuses on the 1988 Dallas Carter High School Football team that was featured in the movie Friday Night Lights. What Carter Lost can be seen on rotation on ESPN, as well as on the ESPN App and the ESPN 30 for 30 website. 

NoiseFold (UNT faculty artist David Stout and Cory Metcalf) exhibited "Transform Series One," a show of glass sculpture utilizing generative digital techniques to visualize virtual vessels, at the Form & Concept Gallery in Santa Fe (July 2017). NoiseFold's glass plasma sculptures were recently featured in New Glass Review (38), published by the Corning Museum of Glass.  This work was made possible by an invitation for a guest artist residency at the Pilchuck Glass School, where Stout and Metcalf worked with two of Dale Chihuly's gaffers to create a large body of work in glass, and taught a class in "Transcoding Glass." 

Alumnus composer Seth Shafer (PhD 2017) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Music Technology at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, beginning in the fall of 2017.