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Press Releases
Remarkable young composers discovered by 91Èȱ¬ Proms
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Five talented teenagers have been announced as winners of the ninth 91Èȱ¬ Proms/Guardian Young Composers competition.
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For the first time the winners receive commissions to write new work for the 2008 91Èȱ¬ Proms Composer Labs and the winning works will be professionally performed at a free 91Èȱ¬ Proms concert at Cadogan Hall, London on Friday 17 August and recorded for broadcast on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3 on 24 August.
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All entrants are invited to the 91Èȱ¬ Proms "Inspire" day where there are workshops, talks and the chance to hear the winning pieces, and up to 400 teenagers from around the country are expected to attend.
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Eminent and successful British composers, three of whom have been commissioned to write for this season's 91Èȱ¬ Proms, including Judith Bingham, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Rachel Portman, Fraser Trainer and Peter Wiegold, will participate.
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The day culminates with the evening Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall, where Knussen conducts the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra in music by Schoenberg, Hans Werner Henze, Stravinsky as well as his own Violin Concerto.
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The top 11 entrants (listed below) are also invited to a winners' day on 17 July where they can participate in composing workshops with other winners and highly commended entrants.
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The 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra's Principal Guest conductor David Robertson, who has a formidable reputation as a conductor of new music, will attend the winners' day to share his wisdom with the future generation of composers and talk about what inspires him.
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The winners in the senior category (ages 16-18) are:
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- Joel Rust, 17, Latymer Upper School, London: Paraprosdokia for wind sextet;
- Carson Becke, 18, Purcell School, Bushey, Herts: Three Nocturnes for orchestra;
- Jonathan Coffer, 18, Wells Cathedral School, Somerset: Correspondences for orchestra and soprano.
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The winners in the junior category (ages 12-16) are:
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- Tom Harrold, 16, Douglas Academy, Glasgow: Dance for percussion sextet and piano;
- Matthew Bilyard, 16, Manchester Grammar School: Elegy for vibraphone, clarinet, violin and cello.
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Highly commended entries were:
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- Kate Whitley, 18, Cherwell School Oxford: Poem for piano;
- Nick Martin, 18, Bedford School: Mobile for strings and oboe;
- Alex Nikporenko, 17, Chethams School, Manchester: Maslenitsa for woodwind, strings and marimba;
- Ralph Kemp, 14, Haberdashers Askes, Hatcham: I don't really like Godzilla for piece for Synth, bass, drum kit, saxophone and clarinet;
- Lloyd Coleman, 15, Chethams School, Manchester: Intrada and rondo for wind quintet;
- Aimee Kwan, 12, Guildford High School: Perezione di Parallase for piano.
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The judges, who looking for individual voices and signs of originality, included composers Fraser Trainer, Philip Venables, Errolyn Wallen, and Peter Wiegold,, as well as The Guardian's Peter Kingston, and the 91Èȱ¬'s Editor of New Music Andrew Kurowski.
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Kurowsiki, who has been a judge in all nine competitions to date, felt that the standard was "leaps and bounds over what I've heard in the last eight years", while Venables, judging for the first time said that "the level of achievement, particularly in the senior category, is really quite remarkable."
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Wallen nicely summed it up: "I would say that we've found some pieces from composers who are going to carry on composing. That's very exciting."
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Copies of the scores of some of the winning compositions will be available to download from the 91Èȱ¬ Proms website (bbc.co.uk/proms), a service which aims to encourage young instrumentalists to perform music by their contemporaries.
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Notes to Editors
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91Èȱ¬ Proms Composer Labs, for which the winners have been commissioned to write new work, take place in Cardiff, Manchester, London and Glasgow in February 2008. Look for details on bbc.co.uk/proms in the autumn.
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VB
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