Young Composers Competition winner to be announced at next year’s Elgar Festival

Young Composers Competition winner to be announced at next year’s Elgar Festival

Issue Date : 5 November 2024 Ref : EF2502

Photo caption : Callum Bisson was announced as one of last year’s winners of the Young Composers Competition (photo credit Michael Whitefoot)

Organisers of the annual celebration of the life and music of Worcestershire’s most famous composer have announced next year’s exciting opportunity for young composers.

The Elgar Festival – which will take place between Saturday 24 May and Sunday 1 June next year – has launched the annual competition, which will result in the winning composition being played at the event.

The organisers of the festival are asking young musicians to compose a piece for strings, ideal for students studying GCSE or A Level music or for any young entrepreneurial composers.

The winning pieces will be performed by members of the English Symphony Orchestra at the Elgar For Everyone concert in Worcester Cathedral on Wednesday 28 May 2025.

Kenneth Woods, Artistic Director at the Elgar Festival said: “We are delighted to launch this fantastic competition as part of the 2025 festival.  Encouraging our young composers to help us celebrate the life and works of Worcestershire’s most famous composer not only adds a new and vibrant element to the festival but also highlights the talent of future musicians.  We look forward to receiving entries!”

Scores and recordings can be uploaded on the website and contact details submitted.

Entry age groups are as follows:

• Those who are aged up to 14 years old are asked to compose a short trio for woodwind for flute, clarinet and bassoon.  It needs to be between two and three minutes long and in any style with a festival feel;

• Those who are aged between 14 and 18 years old are asked to compose a piece of music for a standard woodwind quartet, flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon.  It should be 4 minutes long and in any style with a festival feel.                     

Scores should be submitted in PDF format and recordings in MP3, M4a or Wav formats.  All compositions must be clearly labelled with name, age, a contact address and email address. Files containing score and recording should be uploaded to a cloud service (eg.OneDrive/GoogleDrive/iCloud etc) and the link emailed to outreach@elgarfestival.org. Please do not email original files

The deadline is Friday 21 March 2025; submissions will be judged by a panel of leading professional composers.

Themed ‘Celebrate with Elgar’, next year’s festival will bring together world class professional musicians and artists alongside local choirs and ensembles placing the music of Worcester’s most famous son alongside that of his contemporaries and some of today’s leading composers and arrangers.

Set in the composer’s hometown and surrounding areas over the week closest to Elgar’s birthday on 2^nd June, the festival is an annual celebration of Elgar’s music spanning symphonic and string orchestra concerts by the resident English Symphony Orchestra, along with chamber concerts, choral concerts, Come and Play Day, recitals, workshops, masterclasses, street performances, a young composers competition, exhibits, tours and talks. 

Venues next year include Worcester Cathedral, Royal Porcelain Works, The Guildhall, Malvern Priory, Pershore Abbey, St Martin’s London Road, All Saints Deansway, St George’s Barbourne, St Martin in the Cornmarket, Elgar’s Birthplace The Firs, Huntingdon Hall, St Wulstan’s at Little Malvern, St George’s RC Church and Piston Distillery. 

Since its inauguration in 2018, when it was a Critic’s Pick in both The Guardian and The Times, the festival has doubled in size and scale and continues to grow annually through an innovative development programme of appealing and accessible events, working with hundreds of both internationally renowned professional artists and amateur musicians and performers of all ages to ensure Elgar really is for everyone.

For further information, please visit www.elgarfestival.org/composition-competition.