In celebration of its 15th anniversary year, Newmoon Insurance Services Ltd. has announced a new young composers competition in partnership with Brass Bands England (BBE).
Newmoon and BBE invite composers who have not yet reached their 26th birthday by the anniversary (born after 26 June 1997) to submit a new composition for brass band before the deadline of 26 June 2023. Pieces can be up to five minutes long, must not have been previously performed, and should be for standard brass band instrumentation. Entries will be assessed and a winner selected by a panel of judges to be selected by the organisers.
The winning piece will receive a unique performance premiere opportunity, being performed live at the national Brass Band Conference at the University of Huddersfield on Saturday 7 October 2023. In line with the theme of this year’s conference, Heritage and Innovation, composers are asked to reflect the themes of ‘Innovation’ in their works.
In addition, the winner will also receive a £750 cash prize from Newmoon, as well as a pledge for a publication contract, to be confirmed by BBE with a partner publisher in the coming months. The successful composer will also be offered a free mentoring session with composer Liz Lane to support them in their future work.
Newmoon Director Paul Crump commented: “Newmoon’s approach to our specialist music insurance business, has always been to remember that our business depends on musicians and bands and that only by working together can we all benefit.
I hope our competition will provide an opportunity for a composer to show their talent and perhaps kick-start their career in music . Of course, players and bands will also benefit from adding new music to their repertoire, and I hope the winning piece will be both challenging and exciting to play.”
Newmoon particularly encourages pieces that will be playable and enjoyable for bands at a range of levels, with flexible parts to make best use of the abilities of each player in the band.
Paul continued: “This competition is just an extension of our Band Aid programme which over the years we have paid back to brass bands over £60,000 and reflects the support we try to provide to our banding community. We consider ourselves a part of that community and not just a service provider. We hope that this competition inspires composers and musicians for years to come”.
Enter your composition
To apply, please submit your composition (score and audio file) along with any composer's notes or commentary by the deadline of Monday 26 June at 9am. The winning piece will be announced by Friday 21 July. For the full composer's brief and FAQs please visit the BBE website. Any questions can be directed to BBE’s Projects Officer Jessica Wilson on jess@bbe.org.uk.