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Young Composers' Competition

ATTENTION ASPIRING YOUNG COMPOSERS!

An exciting opportunity for young composers to have their music played at the Elgar Festival 2025!
Take a look below and follow in Elgar’s footsteps!

A terrific opportunity for students studying GCSE or A Level …….. or for any young entrepreneurial composers out there!

Compose a piece for the Elgar Festival 2025! The winning composition will be performed at the 2025 Elgar for Everyone concert in Worcester Cathedral on Weds 28 May 2025 by members of the ESO.

 

The winner and other finalists will also be invited to attend the Gala concert on 31 May 2025 

Applicants must be resident in the UK and currently in UK education.

 

Age up to 14:

  • Compose a short trio for woodwind for flute, clarinet and bassoon.
  • It should be 2-3 minutes long and in any style, with a festival feel.

 

Age 14 – 18:

  • 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.
  • It should have a festival feel.

 

How to submit:

  • All entries must have a score attached and submitted in PDF format.
  • Recordings must be submitted in MP3, M4a or Wav formats.
  • Files containing you 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.
  • Ensure that you clearly label your composition with your name and age and
    include a contact address and email.

 

Closing Date: Friday 21 March 2025

 

Submissions will be judged by a panel of leading professional composers including the 2025 Festival’s featured composer Ian Venables.