EMERGING COMPOSERS
2026/2027
We are pleased to launch our inaugural Emerging Composers Competition – showcasing the work of the UK’s upcoming voices in choral music
£1000
PRIZE MONEY
HIGH-QUALITY
RECORDINGS
1:1 COACHING
SESSION
THE LIVE FINAL WILL TAKE PLACE IN LONDON ON FEBRUARY 13TH 2027
Please follow the following link to the entry information and please get in touch with any questions. Deadline for entry is 11.59pm on November 29th 2026.
We welcome applicants from all who consider themselves an emerging artist in choral composition, including those still in full-time education, as well as more experienced musicians. If we are able to help make the application process more accessible in any way, please let us know via email. All finalists will receive a private Zoom call with one or two judges prior to the Final – this will be an opportunity to gain more insight into a career in composition, as well as make any suggested edits to the score itself.
This year’s theme for compositions surrounds texts by Emily Dickinson, some of the most expressive texts used in choral music. We’re pleased to be welcoming our experienced judges Alexander and Kerensa, and Donald Skoog with his Emily Dickinson Ensemble for a performance of a new commission during the interval of the live final. Find details of our fantastic panel below…
ALEXANDER CAMPKIN
JUDGE
Alexander Campkin (b. 1984) studied at Oxford University, Royal Academy of Music and University for Performing Arts in Vienna. His music, described as ‘fresh and attractive’ by Gramophone magazine, has been performed and broadcast in over two hundred countries and territories, including at the Royal Albert Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Tokyo Opera City Hall. Commissions include BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House, Tallis Scholars, Wigmore Hall, Tenebrae Choir, London Mozart Players and the Vokalkapelle der Theatinerkirche Munich.
KERENSA BRIGGS
JUDGE
Kerensa Briggs is an award-winning composer specialising in choral music. Her work has been described by The New York Times as “poignant, ambivalent [and] quietly devastating.” Her music is performed regularly on international stages, with venues including Westminster Abbey, Wigmore Hall, and the Sistine Chapel. Briggs’s works have been recorded and broadcast by leading ensembles such as VOCES8, The BBC Singers and The Sixteen.
Her portrait album Requiem (2023), released on Delphian Records, alongside several other recordings of her music, placed in the classical charts and was praised by BBC Music Magazine as “alluring and heartfelt.” She served as Composer in Residence with the St Louis Chamber Chorus from 2023 to 2025, holds a residency with the Whiddon Autumn Festival 2026 and is composer for The Sixteen’s Choral Pilgrimage 2026. Her passion for choral music stems from her own choral background, having sung with ensembles including Gloucester Cathedral Youth Choir and the Choir of King’s College London, where she held a Choral Scholarship and completed an MMus in Composition.
DONALD SKOOG
JUDGE & REPRESENTATIVE OF THE EMILY DICKINSON ENSEMBLE
Don is an independent composer, musician, and writer who lives in Oak Park, Illinois. He is co-chair of the Emily Dickinson Society (EDIS) Arts Committee, has published in both the EDIS Journal and Bulletin, and will be presenting a music and poetry workshop at the EDIS International Convention in Taipei, Taiwan in June 2025. His compositions include Water and Fire for solo marimba (2nd Prize in the Percussive Arts Society’s 1982 Composition Contest), published by Mostly Marimba, and La Cantilena de las Luces (2018) for percussion ensemble, commissioned by Millikin University and published by CMP Press. Three of his marimba trio works, Attendance to Ritual, Art Song,and Mozambique have been republished by Mostly Marimba in 2023. Don performs on drumset, Latin and Arabic percussion, marimba, Jazz vibraphone, and Flamenco cajón. He has taught percussion at the American Conservatory of Music, Sherwood Music School, and the Contemporary Music Project, which he founded in 1982.
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