BBC Young Composer
BBC Young Composer aims to discover, nurture and develop the next generation of young composers. Our programme inspires and champions young music makers aged 12-18 through a national competition held every other year, alongside in-person and online workshops and bespoke creative opportunities.
BBC Young Composer Competition 2025
The BBC Young Composer Competition is open to 12-18 year olds across the UK who create their own original music. Winners participate in a tailored development programme working with a mentor composer on a project with the BBC Concert Orchestra, culminating in a performance or broadcast opportunity.
Our 2025 competition was open for applications from March to September 2025 - thank you and congratulations to everyone who entered. Over 400 applications were submitted from across the UK, with genres spanning song writing, film, choral, solo instrument, jazz, rock, pop, electronic, classical and contemporary. Each composition was assessed on its compositional idea, creativity and originality, and was judged anonymously.
We received an outstanding range of compositions, and our judging panel noted that the exceptional quality of entries made this year's deliberations some of the most challenging to date.
We are delighted to announce our 2025 BBC Young Composer Competition Winners and Highly Commended entrants:
Lower Junior Category (age 12-14)
Winners:
Oskar Wit Baldyga - Contrabass Concerto
Luca Boston - Spectralis
Highly Commended:
Easher Austin - Quarto
Tamara Brown - Prelude: Anticipation
Laura Kesiak - A Vintage Television
Upper Junior Category (age 15-16)
Winners:
Nemunis Jusionis-Vila – A Shot of Argentina
Jixuan Li - Away In A Quazar
Highly Commended:
Mark Avery – Daybreak
Imogen Sowden – Nightingale
Shravan Sriram – The Clumsy Clown
Senior Category (age 17-18)
Winners:
Gerard Coutain - Broadcast Caprice
Noah Hacking - Island Of Aeolia
Highly Commended:
Alex Rennie - Antipodes
Timofei Semenov - Whirling Dervishes
Max Walsh - ¡No tengamos pelos en la lengua!
The 2025 BBC Young Composer Judging Panel were:
Segun Akinola, Belle Chen, Lloyd Coleman, Tansy Davies, Hannah Donat, Shiva Feshareki, Gavin Higgins and George Moore
For Young Composers:
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Resources for composing and writing your own music
Including: how to get started, writing for film, TV and video games, writing for different instruments and more.
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Composing the World Around You Chats
We chat to top music-makers on finding inspiration, getting your music heard and dealing with writer’s block and self-doubt.
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New music by BBC Young Composers
Explore new music and commissions by BBC Young Composers
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2023 BBC Young Composer Winners: The Process and Music
Discover the music and process for brand new commissions written by our 2023 competition winners.
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BBC Introducing
Making music? Get yourself heard on the BBC.
For Teachers:
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Hear more from BBC Young Composer
If you're a teacher, interested educator or an individual from an organisation: hear more from BBC Music Learning and Participation.
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Teacher Composition Resource Hub
For teachers teaching Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4 and GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and at 3rd Level, 4th level, National 4 and 5 in Scotland.
