Electroacoustic works Contemplating Larry by alumna composer Elainie Lillios (DMA 2000) and Regression by graduate composer Bihe Wen were two of thirteen prizewinners selected from a pool of 109 composers from 25 different countries in the Concours de Composition Acousmatique Métamorphoses 2016. The prizewinning works are included on the CD recording Métamorphoses 2016, released in February 2017.

Alumnus composer Daniel Sabzghabaei (BM 2014) was recently selected as a composer fellow for the 2017 Intimacy of Creativity Festival in Hong Kong. Daniel will be working in collaboration with Master of the Queen’s Music, Judith Weir, co-founder/associate artistic director of the New York Festival of Song, Michael Barrett, acclaimed tenor Jonathan Blalock, and internationally renowned composer and artistic director of IC 2017 Bright Sheng on performances of his cycle, Four Glimpses of Desire (چهار نگاه اجمالی ازهوس) (2016).

NoiseFold (UNT faculty artist David Stout and Cory Metcalf) presented The Ten Thousand Things at Southern Oregon University, Oregon Center for the Arts, where they were joined by the Left Edge Collective (former UNT faculty composer David Bithell, trumpet and electronics; and Terry Longshore, percussion) in May 2017.

Faculty composer Joseph Klein has been named as one of two 2016-17 Faculty Fellows from the UNT Institute for the Advancement of the Arts. Klein will use his fellowship in the spring of 2017 to complete his large-scale modular chamber work, An Unaware Cosmos, to be premiered at UNT in October 2018.

Graduate composers Michael Smith, Jacob Thiede, Bihe Wen, and Jinghong Zhang will have works presented and performed at the National Student Electronic Music Event (NSEME 2017), 10-11 March 2017 at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA.

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.

In August 2017, Elizabeth McNutt performed three concerts at the National Flute Association Convention in Minneapolis, MN, during which she premiered new works for flute and piano by UNT faculty composers Kirsten Broberg and Jon Christopher Nelson. Dr. McNutt was also a guest artist with the Texas Flute Symposium 2017, where she performed a recital of recent works and led two masterclasses.

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.

Doctoral composer Seth Shafer has been selected as one of three finalists in the Lyra Society's Costello Competition for Composition for his solo harp piece Night in Arcturus Stream. As a finalist, Shafer will compose a new work for solo harp with a chance to win a $1000 prize, a world premiere at the Curtis Institute of Music's Field Concert Hall in May 2017, and a publishing contract with Fatrock Ink Music Publishers.

Faculty composer Joseph Klein will be the featured speaker at two concerts by Orchestra 2001 in April 2018, including the Philadelphia premiere of Frank Zappa's The Yellow Shark at The Fillmore Philly in April 2018.  This residency was supported by a grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, and will also include a program of works by Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, and Pierre Boulez.

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.

UNT faculty artist David Stout, Cory Metcalf and Reilly Donovan premiered a new virtual reality installation titled Vesica Pisces at the CURRENTS International New Media Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico in June 2017. 

Graduate composer Christopher Poovey's composition Dripstone for baritone saxophone and stereo fixed media will receive its New York City premiere at the 2017 Bushwick Open Studios at MISE-EN_PLACE, which takes place 23-24 September 2017.

Alumnus composer Chaz Underriner (PhD 2016) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Digital Arts at Stetson University, beginning in the fall of 2017.

Graduate composer Bihe Wen's composition Regression was selected as a finalist in MÉTAMORPHOSES 2016. The program will take place on 19 October 2016, during the international festival "L'ESPACE DU SON" in Brussels, Belgium.

Besieged by an Expert Sun, a multimedia work by graduate composer Alejandro Carrillo, has been selected as part of the 39th Manuel Enríquez International New Music Forum in Mexico City.  Alejandro will perform the work on 24 September 2017 in the National University’s Contemporary Art Museum.

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. 

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.