The UK’s Laudemus Composition Competition Announces Winners

Composers David Harris and John Sturt have been awarded as joint winners

This year’s Laudemus Composition Competition in the UK saw candidates compose an anthem written for an SATB choir with organ accompaniment.

The 2024 prize of the competition has been jointly awarded to David Harris for Hail, gladdening light and to John Sturt for Te lucis ante terminum.

Both anthems will have their first performance at the Wimborne Minster at Evensong on August 10, 2024. Subsequently, the winning pieces will be published by the Royal School of Church Music.

The adjudicators of the competition comprised Dr. Barry Rose, Jeremy Jackman, Sam Hanson, and Tim Ruffer.

Hailing from London, Harris began learning piano from an early age and began organ lessons with Paul Gobey at the age of 13. He soon won organ scholarships at St George’s Parish Church, Beckenham, and later at Portsmouth Cathedral. His mentors included David Price and Oliver Hancock.

A graduate of Durham University, he served as an Organ Scholar prior to his current role as Director of Music at St Oswald’s Parish Church, Durham, and in 2021, he was a finalist in the BBC R3 Carol Competition.

Also a copyist, bass-baritone singer, conductor, and violinist, Sturt comes from a musical family. He began violin lessons at age six and, after a battle with cancer prevented his hopes of going into the RAF, he started composition at age 14.

He is a master’s graduate of the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where he studied with Deirdre Gribbin, Paul Newland, Errollyn Wallen MBE, Stephen Montague, and Soosan Lolavar.

Sturt’s music is distinguished by its rich harmony, harmonic changes, and use of folk music allusions in his melodies. In 2017, he won joint prize in the Ludlow English Song Weekend Composition Competition, and the following year he won the Trinity Laban Silver Medal for Composition. In 2023, Sturt was one of the featured composers in the Choir and Organ “New Music” series.