West Cork Chamber Music Young Composers’ Competition

The West Cork Chamber Music Young Composers’ Competition is now open for entries. Submissions are welcome from all Irish and Irish-resident composers under 35.

Closing date for entries is Wednesday, 12 March 2025.

Learn more and apply here.

This year’s judge will be Deirdre Gribbin.

The work:

  • Scored for string quartet (2 violins, 1 viola and 1 cello). Works requiring other instruments, pre-recorded sounds or electronics are not eligible for consideration. 5-8 minutes duration.
  • Has not been performed in concert prior to its performances at the 2025 West Cork Chamber Music Festival.

The competition will be judged anonymously and the international judge will select three winning scores on equal footing. Each of the three composers will receive:

  • €1,000 prize money.
  • 3 nights’ accommodation at the festival.
  • 2 public performances of their work by a conservatoire quartet at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival. The second will be the official World Premiere played as part of the Young Musicians Series during the Festival.
  • The first performance will be at a workshop attended by all three composers and the public. The composer will have a chance to discuss their work with the international adjudicator and the musicians. The assigned conservatoire quartets will perform the works as they are workshopped and experiment with compositional suggestions.
  • Each composer will have an opportunity to work with the performers prior to the work’s Young Composers Forum.

Competition entry is free. Entrants must be under the age of 35 on Wednesday, 1 January 2025.

Past winners of the Competition include Seán Doherty (whose work I am the World was commissioned by the European Federation for Choral Music), Solfa Carlile and Amanda Feery, (both winners of the Seán Ó Riada competition), Robert Coleman (NCH Jerome Hynes competition winner) and Finola Merivale (a Dean’s Fellow at Columbia University.