The UK offers a vibrant landscape of composing opportunities, providing young musicians with essential pathways to develop their creative voices and skills beyond the classroom. Highlighting these options can significantly inspire and motivate your students, helping them transition their musical ideas into tangible compositions.
Here’s a summary of what’s covered (in no particularly order):
- Sound and Music: In the Making
- BCMG: Creative Composing Lab
- ORA Singers: Young Composers
- Sound Scotland: Go Compose!
- BBC: Young Composer Competition
- NCEM: Young Composers Award
- St.Catharine’s College A Level Composition Workshop
- Song Academy: Young Songwriter Competition
- Arts Active Wales: Young Composers Course
- Composers in the Classroom with Chamber Choir Ireland
Please check the individual websites for up to date information.
1. Sound and Music: In the Making
In the Making is the UK’s only year-long artist development programme for talented young music creators and composers aged 14–18. It supports those passionate about making music in any form and is open to all, regardless of instrument, musical interests, creative goals, background, or location.
The programme brings together 50 young music creators from across the UK for a week-long residential at the University of Huddersfield where they will create, record and perform their own original new music and access a wealth of workshops, learning sessions and career development.
They are guided by artists, top composers, industry professionals and tutors throughout the week and then during their subsequent 12-month virtual journey, transforming their composing and performing skills while building their confidence, experience, and creative ambition.
Location: Huddersfield
2. BCMG: Creative Composing Lab
The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) Creative Composing Lab is a free, in-person workshop for young people aged 14 to 18 who are interested in composing. The programme provides an opportunity for aspiring composers to work with professional musicians and a composer.Â
Location: Birmingham
3. ORA Singers: Young Composers
The ORA Singers Young Composers’ scheme is open to secondary students from non fee-paying schools across the UK. Each year, the scheme welcomes 50 students who will receive FREE first-class coaching in choral composition. Successful applicants are enrolled as either Young Composers or Apprentices.
Location: some sessions online; showcase takes place in London
Hear from 2024 winner Annabel Baxter in our Women’s History Month interview series.
4. Sound Scotland: Go Compose!
Go Compose! is a composition course for young composers aged 13-18 and in full time education. It’s a unique opportunity to work with professional composers and musicians from Red Note Ensemble who we run the course in partnership with.Â
Over 3 days you will create your own, original piece of music which will be performed at the end of the course. You will also receive a recording of your piece.
Location: Scotland (various – specific location changes each year)
5. BBC Young Composer Competition
The BBC Young Composer competition is an annual event for composers in the UK aged 12-18.
- Eligibility: The competition is open to young people aged 12-18 as of July 1, 2025, who are resident in the UK.
- Categories: There are three age categories: Lower Junior (12–14), Upper Junior (15–16), and Senior (17–18).
- Awards and Opportunities: Winners receive opportunities to work with professional musicians, get their music recorded for broadcast, and have their work mentored by composers.
- How to Enter: Entries must be submitted online through the BBC Young Composer website in September of the year of entry (check website for exact deadlines).
6. NCEM: Young Composers Award
The National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award is open to UK composers. There are two age categories: 18 and under, and 19–25.
Young people are invited to write a new trio piece for The Gonzaga Band, an ensemble specialising in music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. It should be written for soprano, treble or mute cornetto, and harpsichord or organ.
Inspiration should be taken from the experimental and innovative music of Monteverdi and his contemporaries, evoked in The Gonzaga Band’s recently released recital programme Love’s Labyrinth, which you can listen to here. In their madrigals and canzonettas they found new ways to express the joys and pains of love.
For the 2026 competition, the NCEM would like composers to write a song setting that explores the theme of love through the relationship between the voice and instruments, setting a poem by Lady Mary Wroth. Wroth was a contemporary of Shakespeare, a noblewoman who is thought to have been the first English woman to have her original prose fiction published.
7. St.Catharine’s College: A Level Composing Workshop (2026)
The St Catharine’s College A level composing workshop for 2026, is a free event for Year 12 students studying A-level music to get support with their composing work. It includes hearing their compositions rehearsed by current university music students, receiving feedback from workshop leaders, and meeting academics.
The workshop also provides an opportunity for students to learn more about studying music at Cambridge.Â
Deadline for registration: 15 December 2025
Location: Cambridge
Photo credit: Jeroen Van Hautte
8. Song Academy: Young Songwriter Competition
The Song Academy Young Songwriter competition is an annual global contest for young musicians aged 8 to 22, organised by the Song Academy. It is designed to give young songwriters a platform to get their original songs heard by industry professionals and a supportive community. The competition, which is judged on lyrics, melody, and harmony, includes categories for different age groups in both the UK/Ireland and internationally, with winners receiving prizes and the chance to perform at a live showcase in London.Â
9. Arts Active: Young Composers Course
The Arts Active Young Composers Course is a programme that teaches young musicians composition, instrumentation, and arranging skills. Participants work with professional musicians and composers to develop a new piece of music, often for a specific ensemble such as a piano, violin, and cello trio.
The course culminates in the live performance of the student’s work, which is then recorded for the student to keep.
Location: Cardiff
10. Composers in the Classroom
“Composers in the Classroom” is a youth composition programme by Chamber Choir Ireland that guides secondary school students in writing and creating their own choral music. It involves professional composers and singers visiting schools for coaching, followed by a workshop and recording session with Chamber Choir Ireland, culminating in a gala performance for the students’ work.Â
Location: Dublin
