Senior School news

Pupil Adam Possener has been awarded the RPS Prize for Young Composers 

23 May 2018

Congratulations to Norwich School pupil Adam Possener (L6S) who has been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for Young Composers. 

The prize, the Royal Philharmonic Society Duet Prize for Young Composers (which is a biennial prize) started in 2016. The prize is a collaboration between the RPS and the Duet Group, there is a composers prize and an instrumental prize. The previous RPS instrumental prize winner was Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in that same year.  

Adam attended the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards presentation on the 9th May, where he received the RPS Prize for Young Composers. Adam had to submit a portfolio and attend a panel interview with eminent conductors, composers and music publishers. The master of the Queen's music, Judith Weir, presented the prizes at the RPS awards evening. Judith visited to Norwich School in April and Adam, as well as other pupils, got the chance to talk to her.

As a result of Adam winning the prize he gets a professional commission and £1500 prize money. The commission is likely to be from Ensemble 10:10 from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The RPS are the same people who commissioned Beethoven's 9th Symphony, so to be commissioned by them is an amazing achievement for Adam.

Adam says:

'I first started composing when I joined Aldeburgh Young Musicians when I was 9 and through that scheme I got to work with all sorts of professional composers. My music has been performed in places such as Snape Maltings, Kensington Town Hall, and at the World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia. I joined Norwich School in February 2018 and through the school I have had the chance to work with Michael Finnissy and played in front of Judith Weir, who then presented the awards at the RPS Music Awards Evening.'