Winners of the 2023 CSA Chorister Composition Competition announced

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2023 David Willcocks CSA Chorister Composition Competition. We congratulate Imogen Walker from Emmanuel College, Cambridge who won the junior (under 14) category, and Nora Rechel from Norwich Cathedral Girls’ Choir, who won the 14–18 category.

Nora Rechel winner of the 2023 CSA Chorister Composition Competition
Nora Rechel winner of the 2023 CSA Chorister Composition Competition

The Competition

In 1981 the Association launched a competition that has proved popular with many choristers keen to try their hand at composing. There have been many distinguished adjudicators over the decades, including Sir David Willcocks himself. This year we were delighted to welcome Sir David’s grandson, Charlie, who joined his dad Jonathan to judge the 2023 entries.

In 2012 CSA teamed up with the David Willcocks Music Trust. As well as judging the entries, the Trust provides cash prizes and a signed certificate. The CSA is incredibly grateful for this wonderful support for young choristers wishing to start composing.

The Girls Choir of Pembroke College Cambridge gave a remarkable evensong last Wednesday, featuring almost exclusively music written by or for the choir. The introit, “You know me” was written for the choir by Kristina Arakelyan; the rest of the service music was written entirely by members of the choir. The canticles were written by Maryam Giraud; the anthem, “Peace” by Imogen Walker, while the responses and psalm chant were written by the choir during previous rehearsals.
The Girls Choir of Pembroke College Cambridge performed a remarkable evensong featuring almost exclusively music written by or for the choir. Imogen Walker, winner of the junior category of the Chorister Composition Competition wrote the anthem, “Peace”; The introit, “You know me” was written for the choir by Kristina Arakelyan; the canticles were written by Maryam Giraud; the anthem, while the responses and psalm chant were written by the choir during previous rehearsals.

Highly Commended

As well as the winners, we also congratulate those whose work has been highly commended including Christopher Reid from Christ’s Hospital School in the senior section and Belinda Gifford-Guy from Wells Cathedral and Thomas Howarth from New College Oxford in the junior section.

The Judges Praise

Thank you very much for taking part in what has proven to be a very exciting and highly competitive competition – the standard of entries was incredibly high and we are delighted to announce that the winners of the Choir Schools’ Association David Willcocks Chorister Composition Competition have now been selected and informed.

It was such a pleasure to have the opportunity to read all your composed settings of the text ‘Peace be to this house’, which varied from simple unison settings to multi-voice ambitious compositions. What we were looking for was choral writing that was sensitive to the natural phrasing of the words, as well as the overall character of the text, musically consistent writing in whatever harmonic style that you chose to write in with a satisfying sense of structure and interesting use of musical detail such as dynamics, phrasing and other marks of expression. Well done to you all for some really pleasing work and I do hope that this competition opportunity may inspire you to keep writing music. Bravo to you all. 

Jonathan Willcocks and Charlie Willcocks (on behalf of the David Willcocks Music Trust)