Young Composer Competition

In 2022 Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus launched an exciting new competition for composers aged 18 to 35. The competition invites young people aiming for a career in composition to submit a short choral work in at least four parts, for a mixed choir to sing unaccompanied. It is run every two years, alternating with Chorus sponsorship and mentoring of a young choral conductor.

The difficulties of emerging artists to have their work heard or seen are well known, but it’s especially hard for young composers, given the need to acquire willing performers of the new works, which can be a costly business. Most competitions charge a fee and require competitors to submit a recording of the composition which can be expensive to organise. This competition has been organised to remove as many barriers as possible, using the following principles:

competitors are asked to submit a score rather than a recording of the work;
no entry fee;
prize money substantial enough to be of use in pursuing a career in composition (£1,500, £1,000 and £500);
anonymous judging;
judges with experience in choral work and/or composition;
performance of the winning work by South Yorkshire’s foremost mixed voice choir;
winners provided with a recording of the performance for their portfolio;
copyright retained by the young composer following the initial performance.

As a champion of the arts the Chorus was always determined to ensure that competitors had high quality poems to work with, so has commissioned award-winning poets to supply the text. The poets involved so far have been:

Katharine Towers, who won the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for The Floating Man (2010), was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize for The Remedies (2016) and longlisted for The Laurel Prize for nature poetry for Oak (2021).
Susie Wilson, whose pamphlet Nowhere Near As Safe As A Snake In Bed won the Disabled Poet Prize 2024.

The competition was developed using a generous bequest from former member Stella Jockel, a Sheffield teacher and vicar’s wife who died in 2020 and who sang alto with the Chorus for over 50 years.