The award winning A4 Brass Quartet has announced the prize winners of its third annual composition competition.

This year's award was judged in collaboration with Bramwell Tovey and Edward Gregson and received a large number of entries from nine different countries. The composers were given a free brief for their works, although they were to be inspired by the quartet's spiritual home of Manchester.

Winner

For the third year it was a product of the Royal Welsh College of Music in Cardiff that took the overall honours.

Jake Thorpe followed in the footsteps of Daniel Hall and Andy Wareham with his composition entitled, 'Cottonopolis' — reflecting the city's rich textile industrial heritage.

Highly accomplished

A spokesperson for the A4 Quartet told 4BR: "The overall standard of compositions was excellent and showed what exciting talent there is to tap into for the brass band movement.

Jake's work is a highly accomplished composition; combining strong writing effects and mature technique with visceral energy contrasting moments of tranquil beauty.

It's a work we are really looking forward to performing in concerts and another fine example of a composer with a great future — hopefully with strong links to the banding movement."

Andrew Champion's 'The Manchester Ballads', with its more reflective look back at the city's history was runner-up. It was the second consecutive year he has been a finalist in the competition.

Jake's work is a highly accomplished composition; combining strong writing effects and mature technique with visceral energy contrasting moments of tranquil beautyA4 Brass Quartet

Next generation

The 'Under-24 award' designed to encourage the next generation of brass chamber music composers was won by Derri Lewis, another student at the RWCMD in Cardiff. With another entirely different source of inspiration, his 'Madchester' was inspired by the city's famous nightclub lifestyle.