The Walter Hussey Composition Competition is a choral music composition competition that was launched in January 2018.

The 2020 competition follows Reading Phoenix Choir’s aim of working with young people and is for composers aged between 16 and 24.

With a 1st prize of £500 and a 2nd prize of £200, and a line-up of top judges from the choral and composition world, the Walter Hussey Composition Competition continues to be one of the leading choral composition competitions of our time.

The competition is named in honour of Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester Cathedral from 1955 to 1977, who commissioned many choral works throughout his lifetime.

Entry for the 2020 competition will start in January 2020, with a deadline for entries of 30th June 2020. The winner is expected to be chosen by December 2020 and the winning piece will receive its world premiere in March 2021.

The 2020 Walter Hussey Composition Competition is being promoted by Reading Phoenix Choir and having celebrated its 50th anniversary season in 2019, the theme for the competition is both encouraging the musicians of the future and looking forwards, and is therefore ‘New Horizons’.

If you are interested in sponsoring this competition in the future, then please let us know via the Contact Us page.