The three winners of this year’s BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers’ Competition have been announced. In the 17-18 year-old category Sarah Gait from Cumbria (right) won with her piece Portrait of a Moor; in the 12-16 category Freddie Meyers from Surrey impressed the judges with his Three Apparitions, and Alex Woolf from Cambridgeshire also won with Mermish.
The competition received hundreds of entries from 12-18 year-old composers and was judged by a panel which included composers Fraser Trainer, Anna Meredith and Nico Muhly.
All three winning works will be performed by the Aurora Orchestra and conducted by Nicholas Collon, in a Proms Plus concert on 4 August. An edited version of the concert will be broadcast on Radio 3 on 16 August. All three composers will also receive a BBC commission.
‘This year’s entries revealed a strong sense of individuality and a wide emotional range,’ said judge Anna Meredith. ‘The standard was incredibly high and all of the young composers demonstrated sophisticated, confident writing.’
There were also ten highly commended entrants:
12-16 Category: Christopher Bowman from Carmarthen: Crete Bryony Connor from Portsmouth: Cat on the Piano Daniel Hogan from Buckinghamshire: String Quintet Toby Hession from Peterborough: Sonata for Horn, 1st Movement Joshua Hagley from Hertfordshire: Commonwealth Prelude
17-18 Category: Aditya Chander from London: Crépuscule en Hiver Rob Jones from Berkshire” Ayre No. 1 Joss Alexander Timms Smith from Denbighshire: Four Haikus Frankie Perry from Nottingham: Elegy – ‘Girl With a Beret’ Samuel J Hall from Kent: Nightmare on 52nd Street
As part of the competition, which is in its 14th year, Composer Labs were held across the UK to give aspiring composers the chance to work with musicians from the BBC performing groups, composers and the BBC Proms team.