The Canadian University Music Society is pleased to announce that Marko Marinic is the recipient of the 2026 Student Composer Prize for his composition entitled Under Wing.
Music and stories have always gone hand-in-hand for Marko Marinic. Whether he’s making concert music or concept albums, Marko aims to weave characterful melodies, fantastical harmonies, and grooving rhythms to build worlds of sound.
Marko enjoys composing across a wide range of genres and styles. His ambient guitar album “Night Owl” was released on Redshift Records in October 2025. His current projects include a ghost-story folk-opera for the Winnipeg Fringe Festival as well as his dissertation piece “Anka.”
Marko is a doctoral candidate at the University of British Columbia where he studied composition with Jocelyn Morlock, Dorothy Chang, and T. Patrick Carrabré. Like his mentors, Marko is a passionate and dedicated educator and currently teaches composition and theory students at the VSO School of Music.
When he isn’t composing, he can be found reading, playing board games with friends, and enjoying a nice cup of hot, black coffee. For more, please see https://markomarinic.com/
(Photo credit: Isaac Zee)
