Below are the past recipients of the Black Bayou Composition Award. Outside adjudicators help determine the winners who receive $500 and a commission for the following year's festival. Two runners-up each receive $100. The award is made possible in part by Friends of Black Bayou.

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2025 - Jonah Elrod, In the Absence of Snow

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2024 - Kyle Krause, Biomimicry

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2023 - Christopher Mortlock, Brightening Band

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2022 - Oswald Huỳnh, Aubade with Ashen Clouds, Scarlet Sky

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2021 - Timothy Roy, Southern Specter

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2019 - Daniel Fawcett, Skulptures I-III

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2018 - Steven Landis, IMPACT

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2017 - William Price, I/O

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2016 - John Teske, topographies