Jessie Reeves has been named as the winner of the 2016 BBC Radio 3 Breakfast Carol Competition.
Reeves, who comes from Wimbledon, won with her setting of ‘Alleluia! A new work is come on hand’. Her carol was selected for a shortlist of six by an expert judging panel, and then voted for by Radio 3 listeners.
David Hill, chair of the judging panel and conductor of the BBC Singers, who sang all six shortlisted carols on air, describes Reeves’s handiwork as ‘a worthy winner in a year which has seen the competition attract such talent. I am delighted for Jessie Reeves, who certainly knows how to compose a memorable melody!’
This is not the first carol the 24-year-old music teacher has composed, as she has been writing one a year since she was 11. The other shortlisted candidates, meanwhile, were Nicholas Hopton from Bedfordshire, Thomas Neal from Stockton-on-Tees, Clive Osgood from Haslemere, Ghislaine Reece-Trapp from Somerset and Joy Williams from Tonbridge.
‘The ancient art of carol writing and composition is thriving in the UK,’ says Alan Davey, controller of Radio 3. ‘It’s fantastic to be able to support Jessie, a new young composer. It’s quite a thing to be voted for by our very discerning audience and we’re delighted to have been able to give her the platform to shine on Breakfast.’
Reeves’s carol will be played on a daily basis on Radio 3 throughout the rest of the Christmas period. To hear it online, click here.
