The Royal Philharmonic Society has awarded a series of grants, totalling £36,500, to 20 young composers and musicians. £13,000 has been granted to rising composers, with five new works commissioned for 2013, and £23,500 has been given to students to support the purchase of instruments.

The five young composers were selected through the annual RPS Composition Prize. The jury, comprising composers Unsuk Chin and Joseph Phibbs, and cellist Zoe Martlew, whittled down the 94 applicants to Christopher McAteer, Tom Coult and Arne Gieshoff, who will write for the Philharmonia’s ‘Music of Today’ series, David Önaç, who will write a new work for the 2013 Cheltenham Music Festival, and Robert Peate, who will write a new solo piano work for the 2013 Presteigne Festival.

The Society, which turns 200 next year, ‘seeks to create a future for music by encouraging and recognising the next generation of talented young musicians’, and offers a number of awards and bursaries to support study abroad, instrument purchase, mentoring and commissioning.