Charles Wood
Composers’ Competition
Charles Wood Festival Composers’ Competition
16 - 23 August 2026
The Charles Wood Festival is pleased to announce the return of the composition competition with the aim to inspire composers of all ages. Entrants are invited to compose a new choral setting of ‘Great King of Gods’, a text from Henry Ramsden Bramley (1833–1917) and set by Charles Wood in 1912, published in 1913.
Three finalists will be invited to Armagh on Thursday 20th August to hear their pieces performed by members of the Charles Wood Singers in front of a distinguished competition jury panel.
The winning entry will be performed at the Festival’s Gala Concert on Friday 21st August, and a recording of the work will be made.
The deadline for entries is Wednesday 1st July 2026 at 12pm.
To enter, please fill out the registration form below. Full competition details and terms and conditions are available here.
Composer’s Competition Jury
David Hill
Renowned for his fine musicianship, David Hill is widely respected as both a choral and orchestral conductor. His talent has been recognised by his appointments as Chief Conductor of The BBC Singers, Musical Director of The Bach Choir, Music Director of Southern Sinfonia, Music Director of Leeds Philharmonic Society and Associate Guest conductor of The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate by the University of Southampton in 2002 for services to music.
Born in Carlisle and educated at Chetham's School of Music, he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the tender age of 17. He took an organ scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge under the direction of Dr George Guest, returning there as Director of Music from 2003-2007. David's previous posts have included Master of the Music at both Winchester and Westminster Cathedrals as well as Music Director of The Waynflete Singers and Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Chorus. He is in great demand for choral training workshops worldwide and is a choral advisor to music publishers Novello. As an organist he has given recitals in most major venues in the UK and toured extensively abroad.
David has made over 70 recordings and contributed to the film sound tracks of Narnia and Shrek the Third. He is engaged in recordings for Naxos of major English choral composers with The Bach Choir and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. David has also appeared as guest conductor with more than a dozen orchestras in the UK, Europe and the USA. His commitment to new music has led to his conducting first performances of works by Judith Bingham, Carl Rütti, Francis Pott, Patrick Gowers, Jonathan Harvey, Philip Moore and Naji Hakim, Sir John Tavener and Philip Wilby amongst others.
Bob Chilcott, Composer in Association
Hailed by The Observer as ‘a contemporary hero of British choral music’, composer and conductor Bob Chilcott has enjoyed a lifelong connection with singing and choirs. He sang in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge as a chorister and choral scholar, and in the vocal group The King’s Singers. He is Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers and is conductor of the Birmingham University Singers. He has guest-conducted choirs in more than thirty countries.
As a composer he has a large catalogue of music published by Oxford University Press that reflects his broad view of musical styles and genres. His large canon of sacred works ranges from St John Passion and Requiem to A Little Jazz Mass. His catalogue includes music for Christmas, from his extended work Christmas Oratorio to The Shepherd’s Carol, written in 2000 for the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.
He has collaborated with several writers, principally the poet Charles Bennett, with whom he wrote The Angry Planet, composed in 2012 for the BBC Proms, and The Voyage, commissioned by Age UK, and nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award. Their first music drama, Birdland, was premièred at the Oxford Festival of the Arts in June 2022. In 2020, he collaborated with Delphine Chalmers for the American Choral Directors Association Raymond Brock Memorial Commission, writing Songs my heart has taught me, and they also wrote Times and Seasons a book of songs for children. Mary, Mother, written with Georgia Way, received its first performance over Christmas 2022, and in 2023 was released by St Martin’s Voices on the Resonus label.
His works are widely recorded by many groups including The Sixteen, Tenebrae, The King’s Singers, The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey Choir, Wells Cathedral Choir, Ora, Commotio, and the Houston Chamber Choir. In 2016 he collaborated with the celebrated singer songwriter Katie Melua and the Gori Women’s Choir on the album In Winter, and his most recent recording collaborations are with The Choir of Merton College, Oxford with Christmas Oratorio on Delphian, and St Martin’s Voices on Resonus.