Winners of the National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award 2026

NCEM Young Composers Award - Edward Tait, joint winner of the 19 to 25 years category(Photo: Charlie Kirkpatrick)

Winners of the National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award 2026, presented partnership with BBC Radio 3, were announced at the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) in York last week. BBC Radio 3 invited aspiring young composers to compose a new song setting for soprano, cornett and keyboard, to be performed by The Gonzaga Band (Jamie Savan cornett; Faye Newton soprano; Steven Devine keyboard).

The composers took inspiration from the music of Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries, evoked in The Gonzaga Band’s recently released recital programme Love’s Labyrinth. The song setting explored the theme of love through the relationship between the voice and instruments, setting a poem by Lady Mary Wroth (1587-1651), published in 1621 as part of the sonnet cycle A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love – one of the earliest by a female poet.

In this strange labyrinth how shall I turn?
Ways are on all sides, while the way I miss:
If to the right hand, there, in love I burn;
Let me go forward, therein danger is.
If to the left, suspicion hinders bliss;
Let me turn back, shame cries I ought return,
Nor faint, though crosses with my fortune kiss;
Stand still is harder, although sure to mourn.
Thus let me take the right, or left hand way,
Go forward, or stand still, or back retire:
I must these doubts endure without allay
Or help, but travail find for my best hire.
Yet that which most my troubled sense doth move,
Is to leave all, and take the thread of Love. 

NCEM Young Composers Award - Kat Farn, joint winner of the 19 to 25 years category(Photo: Charlie Kirkpatrick)

The eight young finalists took part in a day of workshops at the National Centre for Early Music’s home St Margaret’s Church, a popular year-round music venue. The sessions were led by composer Professor Christopher Fox, composer and Honorary Professor of Music at the University of York, and The Gonzaga Band, who performed the pieces in a public performance at the venue.

This year there were two winners in the 19 to 25 years category:

Kat Farn with LABYRINTH and Edward Tait with My troubled sense doth move.

The winner in the 18 years and under category was Laura Kesiak with In this strange labyrinth how shall I turn.

The winning compositions will be premiered by The Gonzaga Band in a lunchtime concert at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Tuesday 27 October 2026, which will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show and BBC Sounds.

NCEM Young Composers Award - Laura Kesiak, winner of the 18 years and under category (Photo: Charlie Kirkpatrick)

The final was live-streamed an is available on the NCEM website, and on YouTube.