ORA Singers Young Composers' Showcase

The award-winning ORA Singers & Suzi Digby OBE present the 2026 Young Composers’ Showcase, the culmination of ORA’s groundbreaking charitable scheme. Hear the sound of the next generation as ORA perform brand new works from ten young composers across the UK, and join the action by voting for the recipient of the Audience Prize.

Set up in 2019 to tackle the decline in music provision in state schools, the Young Composers’ Programme is now in its seventh iteration and has become one of the leading educational programmes in the country. Each year, the scheme welcomes 50 students from non-fee-paying schools across the country, who receive free, first-class mentoring in composition with professional composers.

Ten are selected as Young Composers, receiving one-to-one mentoring with a professional composer who develops their skills and areas of need whilst guiding them through the process of writing a new choral piece. Halfway through the scheme, Young Composers join ORA Singers for a workshop, where they have their ideas and sketches tested out by our professional singers alongside a guest composer.

The Showcase features our 10 Young Composers’ completed pieces, performed and recorded live by ORA Singers in front of a live audience and a panel of industry experts. The concert includes a 30-minute adjudication break and a prize-giving for the winning composers.