The next generation of composers: ORA Singers’ Young Composers’ Showcase at Kings Place

Suzi Digby & ORA Singers at Kings Place

ORA Singers’ Young Composers’ Programme was set up in 2019 to tackle the decline in music provision in state schools. Now in its seventh iteration, each year the scheme welcomes 50 students from non-fee-paying schools across the country, who receive free, first-class mentoring in composition with professional composers.

40 applicants are selected to become Apprentices, who are enrolled onto a free course of online, in-depth workshops, with a further ten selected as Young Composers. These receive one-to-one mentoring with a professional composer who develops their skills and areas of need whilst guiding them through the process of writing a new choral piece. Halfway through the scheme, Young Composers join ORA Singers for a workshop, where they have their ideas and sketches tested out by our professional singers alongside a guest composer. Then, finally, there is a Showcase to feature the ten completed pieces.

As of 2025, the Young Composers’ programme has benefitted over 250 students, with 190 schools involved. 

This year’s ORA Singers Young Composers’ Showcase takes place at Kings Place on Friday 31 July at 3pm. Suzi Digby will conduct eight singers from ORA Singers in a programme that combines Robert Parsons’ Ave Maria and Phillipe De Monte’s Super flumina Babyloni with the 10 Young Composers’ completed pieces, performed and recorded live by ORA Singers in front of a live audience and a panel of industry experts.

There is the chance for the audience to vote for the recipient of the Audience Prize and at the end, after adjudication there is a prize-giving for the winning composers.

Full details from Kings Place website.