(Credit: Jill Steinberg)

Beth Morrison Projects has named composer Anuj Bhutani the winner of BMP:NEXTGEN3 following two performances at National Sawdust in Brooklyn.

Bhutani will receive a commission from BMP to develop his autobiographical music-theatre work “MANU” into an evening-length piece over the coming years. The work is slated to receive its full premiere at BMP’s PROTOTYPE Festival in New York and at a second location in Los Angeles.

“MANU” weaves Bhutani’s personal experience as a student at a Troubled Teen Institute with the Hindu flood myth of survival.

Bhutani was selected over fellow finalist Harriet Steinke, whose work “Monna Innominata” was also presented during the BMP:NEXTGEN3 final weekend.

“Deciding who the winner of BMP:NEXTGEN3 was a very difficult one. Anuj and Harriet both wrote incredible 30-minute works of vocal-theatre that could not have been more different from each other. In the end, I felt that ‘MANU’ is creating a new kind of storytelling in music-theatre that I find very compelling,” Beth Morrison, BMP’s President and Creative Producer, said per an official press release.