 |
| The Gonzaga Band |
Annually the Nationwide Centre for Early Music Younger Composers Award 2026 is introduced by the Nationwide Centre for Early Music in affiliation with BBC Radio 3 and for the 2026 instalment younger composers can be working with musicians of The Gonzaga Band, specialists of late Renaissance and early Baroque repertoire.
Younger composers are invited to compose a brand new music setting for soprano, cornett and keyboard, to be carried out by the excellent Gonzaga Band: (Jamie Savan cornett; Faye Newton soprano, Steven Devine keyboard). The music ought to take inspiration from the music of Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries, evoked in The Gonzaga Band’s lately launched recital programme Love’s Labyrinth. Candidates ought to write a music setting that explores the theme of affection via the connection between the voice and devices, setting a poem by Woman Mary Wrath, a recent of Shakespeare.
Composers chosen for the ultimate are invited to a collaborative workshop day in York on 16 April 2026, led by composer Christopher Fox and the members of The Gonzaga Band. This can be adopted by a public efficiency of all the chosen compositions on the Nationwide Centre for Early Music.
The profitable entries can be premiered by The Gonzaga Band in a lunchtime live performance on the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Tuesday 27 October 2026, which can be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Present and BBC Sounds.
The award is open to younger composers as much as the age of 25 resident within the UK and is split into two classes: 18 years and below and 19 to 25 years.
Full particulars from the competitors web site.
