Southbank Sinfonia and University of Plymouth announce competition winner

The University of Plymouth and Southbank Sinfonia have announced Christopher Churcher as the winning composer for its Levinsky Hall composer competition. As well as receiving a cash prize of £500, Churcher’s work, Breakwater, will be premiered by Southbank Sinfonia on 4 February as part of the Hall’s Musica Viva concert series.

Churcher’s composition premiere will be conducted by competition judge Mark Forkgen in a programme also featuring two Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 and Piano Concerto No.4 with Robert Taub, pianist and director of music at the university’s Arts Institute, also a competition judge. The panel of judges also included composer and Royal College of Music head of composition and contemporary music, Simon Speare.

Dr Taub said: ‘We are all very excited about this concert featuring the dynamic, young Southbank Sinfonia playing both stalwart works of the repertoire and the premiere of the winning composition, Christopher Churcher’s Breakwater. Christopher’s work is highly expressive and evocative, and the combination of his new work with Beethoven’s mighty 7th Symphony and sublime 4th Piano Concerto is compelling indeed.’

The competition, open to UK-based composers under 25, invited submissions of an overture of five to seven minutes with orchestration reflecting the Southbank Sinfonia. Composers were also encouraged to include a musical link to the city of Plymouth.

Born in 2004, Churcher supplements his composition skills with performance experience as both a pianist and bassoonist. He was a chorister at Birmingham Cathedral, before studying composition at the Junior Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He is now based in both Birmingham and Oxford while studying music undergraduate at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.

Churcher said: ‘It’s difficult to put into words exactly how excited I feel to have won this competition. It has been an ambition of mine for a while to write for orchestra, so to have this opportunity to hear my music played by such an exceptional orchestra is just extraordinary. I’m excited to hear the piece in rehearsal in February, and hopefully receive some useful feedback from Mark Forkgen and the Southbank Sinfonia.’