Number One

Young Composer Competition Shortlist announced

02 February 2025

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus is pleased to announce the shortlist for the Stella Jockel Young Composers Competition 2024-25, part of Classical Sheffield Festival Weekend 2025. The shortlisted young composers are Cerys Owen (21), Thomas Stearn (30), James Thomas (25), Reuben Tozer-Loft (23) and Cassie White (27).

Cerys, Thomas and James are all music students at the University of Sheffield, Reuben was born and raised in Sheffield and Cassie works as a video game composer on the outskirts of the city. All the scores were anonymised before making them available to the three judges to ensure the works would be judged on the merit of the composition alone. Our heartiest congratulations go to these shortlisted candidates!

“The high standard of entries is testament to the commitment shown by the local young composers who submitted their work for the competition” said Darius Battiwalla, Music Director of Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, who headed the three-strong panel of judges, “The entries were varied in selection and interpretation of one or other of the texts and in musical style, but all display impressive adherence to the brief.’

The competition commemorates Stella Jockel, a former Sheffield teacher and vicar’s wife who sang alto with the Chorus for many years and whose generous legacy is being used to fund the competition. The aim is to support the creation and performance of new choral works and to encourage and support young people who are studying or starting out on a career in music. 

Applicants had a choice of two texts, both commissioned from award-winning poets: Susie Wilson, who won a Disabled Poet’s Prize for her pamphlet Nowhere Near As Safe As A Snake In Bed,  and Katharine Towers, who won the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for The Floating Man and was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize for The Remedies. It was judged by conductor and organist Darius Battiwalla, Music Director of the Chorus, together with renowned composer and organist Philip Wilby and choral director and conductor Ellie Slorach. 

The winning work will be performed at a special prize-winning event on the final evening of the Classical Sheffield Weekend Festival on Sunday 23 March 2025, in the wonderful acoustic of St Marie’s cathedral in the centre of Sheffield. The concert will include the world premiere performance of three new works by established composer Stephen Johnson, along with Faure’s beautiful Requiem and Finzi’s Lo the full final sacrifice. 

Tickets are £16, available online or on the door.  

For details of the composer competition see www.sheffieldphil.org/youngcomposer