The University Brass Band Championships
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
UniBrass Composition Competition
The 2025 Competition has now closed for entries.
Please keep an eye out for updates.
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The UniBrass Composition Competition is an exciting opportunity for young composers across the United Kingdom. Open to current students, recent graduates, and anyone aged 18 to 25 this competition challenges and promotes young new composers to create original works for the brass banding world.
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Supported by Wright & Round Music Publishers who are offering the opportunity to publish the winning piece. Established in 1875, Wright & Round is one of the oldest publishing houses in brass banding and its catalogue carries in excess of 5,000 titles. The company publishes works by many of today’s popular composers including Philip Harper, the current music editor, and has always been keen to promote new talent.
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We are delighted by the support from the current National Champions of Great Britain, the Flowers Band. Flowers will be recording the winning composition as well as performing it at their Stroud Subscription Rooms Concert the day after the UniBrass 2025 contest!
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For further information or questions please contact Sidney on sidney.pycroft@unibrass.co.uk
See below for competition rules and submission form.
The Judge: Liz Lane
Liz Lane’s music has been commissioned, performed and recorded worldwide; broadcasts include BBC Radio 3, where she was described by Ian McMillan as ‘the fine composer Liz Lane who’s got such a gift for melody’. Performers have included Cory, Brighouse and Rastrick, Foden’s and Manger Musikklag brass bands, Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Carducci String Quartet, Austin Larsen (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra), Steven Mead and David Thornton. She is Composer in Association with Grimethorpe Colliery Band and Composer in Residence with Lydbrook Band.
Liz has co-facilitated diverse events such as a sold-out performance of her Innovation 216 by over 280 brass band and voices aged 7-70 under the wings of Concorde, and Surtaal Symphony for brass band, Bhangra and soprano voice. Her work Rhythm of Light was chosen as a set piece for the Brass Band Conductors’ Association Conducting Competition in 2024.
Liz was awarded a PhD from Cardiff University in 2010. She is a part-time Senior Lecturer at UWE Bristol, also an Associate Lecturer with the Open University and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Recent commissions include What the Lark Saw for the Three Choirs Festival, a celebratory concert opener Modular 20 for the combined Shepherd Group Brass Bands, and an anthem A Greater Love for the Royal School of Church Music Bath Summer Course 2024.
Liz was the judge for the new UniBrass Composition Competition in 2024 and we are excited to have her back for 2025!
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Liz's Top Tips
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Write the piece you want to write (rather than what you think might work for a competition)
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Consider each part individually - plenty of time for resting? interesting things to play? percussion changes?
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Perhaps try out ideas with players you know (even just a few bars with one instrument)
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Consider ways to use texture and contrast within the overall soundscape
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Enjoy and good luck - we really look forward to seeing all the new music!
Our Shadow Judges
Naomi Rebecca Hill
Composition Competition
2024 Winner
‘Calling’
Samuel Thackray
UniBrass 2024 Best Student
Composition or Arrangement
‘Emergence’
"I’m delighted to have been asked to get involved with the UniBrass 2025 Composition Competition. It was a pleasure to have such an atmospheric platform for the premiere of my piece ‘Emergence’ in 2024 which I conducted with Cambridge University Brass Band, and then to hear Naomi’s winning piece played by Foden’s Band in the Gala Concert! The competition provides such an exciting opportunity and it’ll be an honour to be a part of the team for UniBrass 2025."
"I am excited to be part of the judging panel for the UniBrass Composition Competition 2025 as a 'Shadow Judge'. Winning the UniBrass Composition Competition in 2024 was an incredible unexpected experience and a key moment on my compositional journey. Hearing Foden's phenomenal performance of my piece live, during the Gala Concert, was truly memorable. That and having the opportunity for 'Calling' to be published by Wright and Round were two opportunities I could've never imagined. I am so passionate about encouraging young composers and composition being seen as something within reach for all to try. New works all start in the same place, with a gem of an idea or a few black notes on a page, but creativity multiplies these tiny ideas, and suddenly the image we have in our head takes shape and a score emerges, ready for musicians to interpret & express - for me, that's the joy of composing."
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Flowers Band
The Flowers Band, based in Gloucester, is now in its 56th year. It was formed in 1968 as a result of the disbandment of the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars (Territorial Army) Brass Band. Under the baton of Paul Holland, the band has established itself as one of the world's leading brass bands. In recent years the band has undertaken a range of high profile concert engagements including at Three Choirs Festival, Newbury Spring Festival, and even playing in the arena of Badminton Horse Trials to an audience of over 14,000! 2024 has been the band's most successful year to date, winning the West of England of Regional Championships, The French Open, achieving 2nd place at the British Open and receiving a qualification to represent England at the 2026 European Championships, becoming the first West of England Band to win the National Championships of Great Britain, and achieving 3rd place at Brass in Concert 2024 alongside winning the audience prize.
"Flowers Band is a big supporter of the creation of new music. Over the past decade we have commissioned more than 50 pieces from both established composers, and emerging composers at the beginning of their career. The Unibrass Composition Competition is a fantastic opportunity to encourage young composers to write for brass bands and enrich the repertoire of the brass band movement. We are thrilled to be able to support the competition by recording the winning work and programming it at our concert at Stroud Subscription Rooms on Sunday 16th February."
2025 Composition Competition Results
The Shortlist
To be announced soon...
The Winner
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Submit your composition
Competition Rules & Regulations
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The composed piece must:
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a) be an original composition,
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b) not infringe any copyright,
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c) be arranged for a standard brass band,
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d) be between 3 and 6 minutes in length.
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Must never have been submitted as coursework, to another competition or award, including the in-contest student composition or arrangement award, or performed publicly.
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Must be playable by a Championship section band after a few rehearsals.
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Entrants must be aged 18-25 as of 18th September 2024 OR a student at any UK university or a recent graduate of 2 academic years.
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The presumptive winner will be contacted by email, they must provide proof of age/student status/graduate status within 7 days of the email being sent. Failure to provide acceptable proof of age/status within this timeframe will result in forfeiture of the competition and the runner-up will be contacted for proof of status. This process will continue as necessary.
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Submissions shall be made via a form at unibrass.co.uk/composition-competition
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Submissions must include an MP3 audio file and PDF score.
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Compositions shall be judged blind, nothing identifiable should be on the score or recording.
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The composer will retain all rights to the work
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a) By entering a submission to the UniBrass Composition Competition you give permission for the UniBrass Foundation, in perpetuity, to use, record, upload, and publicise the work without further compensation. ​​​
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b) If the work is selected for publication, a further agreement with the publisher will be made, which is not covered by these Terms of Reference. Any publication shall bear the text “Winner of the UniBrass 2025 Composition Competition”, and does not change the permission given in 9) a.
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c) The entrant shall bear the sole liability for any damage resulting from any infringement of copyrights, proprietary rights, or any other harm resulting from the submission, its use, recording, or publicity.
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The deadline for entries is at 23:59 on 11th December 2024.
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UniBrass reserves the right to change and/or withdraw any part, or the whole, of the competition at any time, without prior warning.
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By submitting a composition to this competition you agree to the above rules.
Support Us
Our annual UniBrass entertainments contest offers students a much needed place to perform and come together, and for audiences to enjoy high quality brass banding entertainment. To support our work, please consider making a donation to UniBrass: