The winning pieces will be premiered by The Tallis Scholars in a public concert at Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden, on Sunday 20 October. The performance will be recorded for later broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show.
The shortlisted pieces were:
19–25 years
Thomas Shorthouse
Mirabile mysterium
Tingshuo Yang
Mirabile Mysterium
Ryan Collis
Lux Divinae
Reese Carly Manglicmot
Mirabile mysterium
18 years and under
Matty Oxtoby
Mirabile mysterium
Charlotte Robertson
A Wondrous Mystery
Jamaal Kashim
Mutationem ac Stabilitatem
Selina Cetin
Nativitas Salvatoris Nostri
The final of the 17th National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award, presented in partnership with BBC Radio 3, took place on Thursday 16 May at the National Centre for Early Music in York.
Compositions by the eight young finalists were workshopped during the day by composer Professor Christopher Fox, professional singers from York based ensemble Ex Corde and their director Paul Gameson, in the presence of Peter Phillips, director of The Tallis Scholars. In the evening, Ex Corde and Paul Gameson gave a public performance. This was live streamed to ensure that friends and families from across the UK were able to join in with the fun.
Congratulations to all our composers: Thomas Shorthouse; Tingshuo Yang; Reese Carly Manglicmot; Matty Oxtoby; Jamaal Kashim; and Selina Cetin who provided the excellent music for this wonderful evening and special thanks to judges BBC Radio 3’s Les Pratt, Peter Phillips, Director of The Tallis Scholars and Dr Delma Tomlin.
We will launch the 2025 NCEM Young Composers Award in November, inviting composers aged 25 and under to write an instrumental piece according to a new artistic brief.
The annual NCEM Young Composers Award was launched in 2008 and is the only such scheme in the UK. It offers a unique opportunity for young composers to engage with the instruments and performance styles of early music, and to work with leading professional early musicians. In bridging the worlds of ‘early’ and ‘new’ music, the Award complements the NCEM’s education policy, to support and nurture young composers and demonstrate to all participants that the music of previous centuries is relevant to today’s creative endeavours.
