The Delius Singers are delighted to announce a composition competition aimed at putting the spotlight on emerging choral composers, giving you the opportunity to work with responsive singers to create a new work to be premiered in the next Delius Singers concert in early 2026. Leading UK choral composers Matthew Martin and Francis Pott will adjudicate the competition.
The theme of the concert will be Nature’s Voice, and will feature an arrangement of Delius’s An Arabesque, a setting of a symbolist poem by Jacobsen which can be found on our website. We invite composers to respond to the theme in any way they see fit: perhaps by considering what Nature’s Voice might mean in the 21st century, or by responding more directly to Jacobsen’s poetry and/or Delius’s setting of it.
The Delius Singers was founded in 2020 by their conductor Alexander Pott. From the outset the idea has been to develop a distinctive sound which particularly suits music of the nineteenth century onwards, allowing the group to bring a unique voice to some rarely-performed composers and to more popular works. Their programmes are diverse and engaging, and have explored rarely-performed works by Frederick Delius (after whom the group is named), Kenneth Leighton, Florent Schmitt, and Lili Boulanger, along with more familiar works by Johannes Brahms, Francis Poulenc, Benjamin Britten, and Gabriel Fauré. The choir consists of about twenty singers and includes professional singers from London and Oxford alongside some of the finest student voices in Oxford University.
See our website for full details on how to apply. Deadline: Monday 5th January 2026