COMPETITION UPDATE

The judging panel has met and we have a short-list of 5 excellent entries. The winner will be announced at the Edinburgh Festival concert on Saturday 13^th August at 16:30 in St Mary’s Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh.

We had many entries to work through and had to leave aside some because they were either too difficult to play, didn’t spread the music enough amongst the various instruments or perhaps in a few cases just not easy enough on the ear for our audience (and our players!). We like to think that we care for our audience!

The list of composers below (in alphabetic order) was chosen by the panel before they knew anything about the composers – so it has been purely on the basis of the music. Two of the composers are still at school and it is particularly pleasing to see compositions emerging at such an early stage.

• Feyi Adebiyi – Sinfonia No 1.
  • Feyi is a student at Birmingham University and has written a piece in Classical Mozartian style with occasional Scottish flourishes that celebrates the RTO’s 20^th
• Jack McKenzie – A Tale of Old.
  • Still at school in Livingston, Jack is our sole Scottish representative on the short-list. His music represents a battle and the victory thereafter.
• Caroline Penn – The Witches
  • Caroline, from Essex, is our youngest entrant. Her music is an adventure inspired by film music. Can the magic spells lift the RTO’s playing?
• Edwin Sung – A wee bit of Irish Scottish Jig
  • Edwin is from Cambridge but hails from Hong Kong, so perhaps our most remote entrant. He has used Irish and Scottish themes to describe a journey through the landscapes of the two countries.
• Ryan Yard – River Travels Onwards
  • Ryan is a music teacher from Telford in Shropshire. His piece is about the simplicity of being amidst great stress and sadness and the universal quality of melody.

Whilst we have no formal plans yet to celebrate this wealth of new music, our intent is to have a concert where we play some, hopefully all of the short-listed entries. As we want to ensure that we play them as best we can, we expect this to be in the Spring of next year. We are looking forward to it.

Who are they?

Edwin Sun Winner of the Emerging Composers Competition 2016 A Wee bit of Irish Scottish Jig

Runners-up

Feyi Adebiyi Sinfonia No 1	Jack McKenzie A Tale of Old	Caroline Penn The Witches	Ryan Yard River Travels Onwards

<What were the rules?>