Blackburn Cathedral Communion Composition Competition

Kindly sponsored by Charles and Camilla Hadcock

Blackburn Cathedral is pleased to announce a communion composition competition. The aim of this series of competitions is to provide new, accessible organ music of a high quality relating to important occasions in the church year. This fifth competition is open to people of all ages and there will be a first prize of £1,000.

Organ music should be considered as an integral part of the service; a great deal of thought goes into repertoire choices by many organists. Once engaged, members of the congregation can find this a powerful devotional tool, but in many churches a certain level of education is necessary to culture an interest in the music being played rather than being dismissed as being something played in the background to be talked over.

In this fifth competition:

Composers are invited to submit a composition of no longer than four minutes in length which will be suitable to be played during the administration of communion.

•  All scores must be submitted by 30th May 2025 to [email protected]

•  All scores must be typeset by a standard music notation programme – ideally Sibelius

•  The level of difficulty should be no greater, and ideally lower, than Grade 8 ABRSM standard

•  All scores must be unperformed and unpublished

The competition will be judged by Robert Sharpe (Director of Music, York Minster), Tom Bell (International Recitalist) and John Hosking (Organist in Residence, Blackburn Cathedral).

It is hoped that future competitions will yield a quality of compositions worthy to be published as a collection of organ music for the liturgical year. All submissions are made on the understanding that publication may follow to support the work of Blackburn Cathedral.

Both the winner and selected runners up will be invited to the Cathedral for the day on Sunday 29th June to hear their works performed and take part in a composition workshop with complimentary lunches provided.