Oxford Chamber Music Composition Competition - winners announced!

d'Overbroeck's is delighted to announce that our judges Jonnny Greenwood, Jeremy Arden and Priya Mitchell met at the end of last week and, after much deliberation, have chosen joint winners for this, the first ever d'Overbroeck's/OCMF Chamber Music Composition Competition. All of the compositions that we heard had a huge amount to commend them, and we would like to thank all those who entered the competition for sharing them with us and for giving us many hours of happy listening! Congratulations go to Thomas Simpson (Magdalen College School) and to Tingshuo Yang (Eton College) on gaining first prize, and to our runners-up, Thomas Jansson (d'Overbroeck's), Christopher Brain (Winchester College) and Daniel Sandell (Harrow School). In the end, it was too difficult to choose between Thomas Simpson's Do Not Go Gently and Tingshuo Yang's Violin Sonata. Tingshuo Yang's sonata showed impressive technical accomplishment with a remarkable consistency of style throughout. It was powerful, dramatic and complex, and was an imaginative response to the brief, incorporating and communicating themes of brotherhood, isolation and nature. Thomas Simpson's composition was emotionally direct and convincing and communicated the composer's intentions with great clarity- an emotional lightning rod for the themes set out in the brief.   Both of the winning pieces will be recorded (with Festival Director and competition judge Priya Mitchell, violin) and the recordings will be shared on the OCMF and d'Overbroeck's websites. D'Overbroeck's provides an ideal environment for musical education and runs and A-Level music programme.