| 1979 |
Conrad Herwig |
University of North Texas |
| 1980 |
Chris Seiter |
University of North Texas |
| 1981 |
Scott Bliege |
Northern Illinois University |
| 1982 |
Paul K. McKee |
University of Texas |
| 1983 |
Tom Kordus |
Northern Illinois University |
| 1984 |
Rob Boone |
University of Arizona |
| 1985 |
Jim Martin |
Eastman School of Music |
| 1986 |
Joel Adams |
University of North Texas |
| 1987 |
John Moak |
University of Central Oklahoma |
| 1988 |
Mike Christianson |
University of Northern Colorado |
| 1989 |
Eric Felten |
Harvard University |
| 1990 |
Matthew Soule |
William Patterson College |
| 1991 |
David Gibson |
University of Central Oklahoma |
| 1992 |
no recipient |
| 1993 |
Rob Stone |
University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
| 1994 |
Elliot Mason |
Berklee College of Music |
| 1995 |
Jürgen Neudert |
Musikhochschüle Köln, Germany |
| 1996 |
Nils Wogram |
Musikhochschüle Köln, Germany |
| 1997 |
Michael Busbee |
William Paterson College |
| 1998 |
Antti Rissanen |
Hans Eisler Hochschüle fur Musik, Berlin, Germany |
| 1999 |
Jeffrey Bush |
Youngstown State University |
| 2000 |
Marius Dicpetris |
University of North Florida |
| 2001 |
Roland Barber |
Indiana University |
| 2002 |
Andy Hunter |
Oberlin College |
| 2003 |
Johannes Lauer |
University of the Arts, Berlin |
| 2004 |
Michael Dease |
Juilliard School of Music |
