| 1964: |
Claire Reis; Donald Engle; Richard Franko Goldman; Virgil Thomson |
| 1965: |
Adele Addison; Milton Feist; Henry Allen Moe; Thomas Scherman |
| 1967: |
William Schuman |
| 1968: |
Roger Sessions; Alberto Ginastera |
| 1969: |
Stefan Wolpe; George Balanchine; Samuel Rosenbaum |
| 1970: |
Aaron Copland; Leopold Stokowski; Benjamin Steinberg |
| 1971: |
Howard Hanson; Roger Sessions |
| 1972: |
Hugo Weisgall; Max Pollikoff |
| 1973: |
Elliott Carter; Roy Harris |
| 1974: |
Koussevitsky Foundation; Olga Koussevitsky |
| 1975: |
Aaron Copland; Otto Luening |
| 1976: |
Virgil Thomson; Paul Fromm |
| 1977: |
Hugo Weisgall; Martin Bookspan |
| 1978: |
Leonard Bernstein; Nicolas Slonimsky |
| 1979: |
John Cage; Lawrence Morton |
| 1980: |
Meet the Composer/John Duffy; Samuel Barber |
| 1981: |
Conlon Nancarrow; American Composers Orchestra/Francis Thorne, Dennis Russell Davies |
| 1982: |
Henry Brant; Institute for Studies in American Music/H.Wiley Hitchcock, founding director; Robert Miller (in memoriam) |
| 1983: |
Robert Erickson; C.F. Peters Corporation/Evelyn Hinrichsen; Paul Jacobs (in memoriam) |
| 1984: |
Milton Babbitt; KPFA/Charles Amirkhanian; St. Louis Symphony/Leonard Slatkin |
| 1985: |
Gunther Schuller; Margaret Jory (in memoriam); Leonard Fleischer of Exxon, Howard Klein of the Rockefeller Foundation, and Frank Hodsoll of the National Endowment for the Arts for the Meet the Composer Orchestra Residencies Program |
| 1986: |
Lou Harrison; Betty Freeman |
| 1987: |
Ornette Coleman; Kronos Quartet; Morton Feldman (in memoriam); Vincent Persichetti (in memoriam) |
| 1988: |
Cecil Taylor; Sylvia Smith and Smith Publications; Peter Garland and Soundings Press |
| 1989: |
Leo Ornstein; Minna Lederman Daniels; and Jan DeGaetani (in memoriam) |
| 1990: |
Muhal Richard Abrams; Pauline Oliveros; Lawrence Leighton Smith and the Louisville Orchestra |
| 1991: |
Bang on a Can; New World Records; Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust |
| 1992: |
(none awarded due to schedule change) |
| 1993: |
Morton Gould; Modern Jazz Quartet; Dizzy Gillespie (in memoriam); Stephen Albert (in memoriam) |
| 1994: |
David Baker; Arthur Cohn; Francis Goelet |
| 1995: |
Ed London and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony; Max Roach; Gregg Smith |
| 1996: |
Earle Brown; Thomas Buckner, Randy Weston; Ulysses Kay (in memoriam) |
| 1997: |
Merce Cunningham; Tania Leon; Paul Sperry; Jacob Druckman (in memoriam) |
| 1998: |
Arnold Broido; Yo-Yo Ma; George Walker; Bette Snapp (in memoriam) |
| 1999: |
Ellis Freedman; Philip Glass; California EAR Unit; Harvey Lictenstein; Mel Powell
(in memoriam) |
