Two winners have been announced as first prize winners in the Laudemus! Composition Competition. Open to young composers under the age of 30, applicants were asked to write an anthem for competent SATB choir with organ accompaniment. John Sturt received the prize for his introit 'Te lucis ante terminum' and David Harris for his anthem 'Hail, gladdening light'. Both pieces will be premiered at Evensong in Wimborne Minster on Saturday 10 August (6 pm).

The four-person adjudicating panel comprised Barry Rose (former director of music at Guildford, St Paul’s and St Albans cathedrals), Jeremy Jackman (composer, previous choral music editor for Choir & Organ, conductor and musical director of Laudemus), Sam Hanson (Director of Music, St Peter, Hammersmith and organist for Laudemus) and Tim Ruffer (Head of Publications, Royal School of Church Music). The RSCM have scheduled both anthems for publication.

The Laudemus! Composition initiative has been by leading figures in church music, including composer Sir John Rutter and conductor and founder of the Eton Choral Courses Ralph Allwood MBE and attracted a wide range of entries from young composers across the UK.

More about the composers:

John Sturt comes from a musical family and took up composition aged 14, later studying under Deirdre Gribbin, Paul Newland, Errollyn Wallen MBE, Stephen Montague and Soosan Lolavar at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. In 2017, he won joint prize in the Ludlow English Song Weekend Composition Competition; his cantata Beyond the Cradle of Humanity won him the Trinity Laban Silver Medal for Composition; and in 2023 he became one of the featured composers in the Choir and Organ ‘New Music’ Series.

David Harris grew up in south east London. He began organ lessons at the age of 13, and subsequently won organ scholarships at St George's Parish Church, Beckenham, under Nigel Groome, and later at Portsmouth Cathedral, under David Price and Oliver Hancock. He studied at Durham University, and is currently Director of Music at St Oswald’s Parish Church, Durham, a post which he combines with a portfolio of teaching and freelance music-making across Durham.