First Prize
William Campbell is currently Sub-Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Bradford Cathedral. He started organ lessons aged 14 as a music scholar at Wellington College and upon leaving school, William became the Organ Scholar at Guildford Cathedral. He graduated from the University of York in 2023; whilst in York, he held senior posts at Leeds Minster and St. Helen’s Church, Stonegate in York and deputised as an organist at all of Yorkshire’s Cathedrals. He then spent two terms as the Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral before returning to Yorkshire as Cathedral Organist at Leeds Cathedral and subsequently his current role at Bradford Cathedral.
"I am delighted to have won this prize; a huge thank you to both choirs for running this competition! I'm greatly looking forward to working with Anthony, Darius and the Black Dyke Band, and hearing the final results in the coming months!”
Joint 2nd Prize
Chris Artley was born in Leeds in 1963 and is a composer, music educator, accompanist, jazz pianist, conductor and chorister based in Auckland, New Zealand. He is regarded as one of New Zealand’s leading choral composers, with twenty-four international composition prizes and more than fifty published works performed worldwide. He is the composer of On the Road of Life, the IFCM’s official World Choral Anthem for 2022–23. His Missa Brevis Akarana was Musica International’s favourite piece of the month in May 2022, and his setting of O Magnum Mysterium was voted favourite piece in Radio NZ 2023 ‘Settling the Score’.
Joint 2nd PrizeRichard Barnard is an international award-winning British composer described as an “original voice” by Roxanna Panufnik. He won the 2023 Finzi International Composition Competition and his music has been shortlisted for the 2023 VOCES8 Composition Competition and ‘highly commended’ in the 2025 New Dublin Voices competition. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and he is regularly commissioned and performed by some of the world’s leading musicians including the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, The Gesualdo Six, Matilda Lloyd and Helen Charlston. His choral music is published by White Light Publishing.
Highly CommendedGriselda Sherlaw-Johnson has lived most of her life in Oxford. Having completed her music degree at UEA she fell by chance into music publishing, becoming the Choral Promotions Specialist at Oxford University Press for a number of years. Since 2024 she has been Choir Administrator for Magdalen College Choir, Oxford. Her first musical love has always been choral music and is currently a member of Oxford's leading contemporary chamber choir, Commotio.
Highly CommendedBruno Angelo (1985) is a Brazilian composer and pianist. Having completed all of his musical education (up to the doctoral level) at public institutions in Brazil, he has participated in various music creation events across Latin America, where his works for diverse instrumental ensembles have been presented and have received important awards, such as those from the Biennial of Brazilian Contemporary Music (on four occasions) and the International Festival of Campos do Jordão. In 2018, Bruno moved to Madrid, Spain, where he pursued a master’s degree in art and dedicated himself to sound art and performance in collaboration with other artists. Since 2024, he has been living in Colmar, France, where he works as a musician and music teacher. With around 90 works in his catalog, Bruno has created music in a variety of styles and heterogeneous projects, mainly linked to contemporary concert music, but also encompassing Latin American popular music, songs, and electronic music.
Highly CommendedAs someone with a family connection to the Halifax Choral, and as a great admirer of the Black Dyke Band (I have written for Yorkshire Youth Brass Band) it was an absolute joy to write with these ensembles in mind.
Former Cambridge Choral Scholar and Head of Music at Nottingham
Girls’ High School, David Machell has written music for every
conceivable occasion and several inconceivable ones. A PRS Full Member since 1983, he holds several composition awards and numbers Oxford University Press, Blackwells, Virgo Music and Kevin Mayhew among his publishers. His semi-professional choir Encantada regularly performs his choral music across the East Midlands. His Gloria was premièred by the Nottingham Bach Society and his Horn Concerto by the Nottingham
Symphony Orchestra. Carlton Male Voice Choir are frequent performers of his compositions and arrangements. His organ music is often included in recitals by Paul Hale. He welcomes visitors to his YouTube site david machell channel.
