The Berkeley Ensemble and the panel of judges for the New Cobbett Prize for Composition are delighted to announce Samuel Wesley Lewis’s Sequenza as the winner of the 2014 award, while Barnaby Martin‘s Lazarus and Laurence Osborn‘s Living Floors are awarded runner-up. The prize’s final was held at The Forge, Camden in a public concert at which all five finalist’s compositions were performed.

The New Cobbett Prize is inspired by the life and pioneering work of philanthropist and founder of the original Cobbett Competition, Walter Willson Cobbett who commissioned many of the early works of Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams, amongst others. Through this, Cobbett helped to establish a British school of chamber composition.

The winning and runner-up compositions will be recorded by the ensemble for release on Resonus Classics in 2015, part of their ongoing work to offer long term exposure to new and emerging composers.

Founded in 2008 by members of London’s Southbank Sinfonia who discovered a shared love for modern British composition, the Berkeley Ensemble has rapidly become one of the UK’s leading chamber groups. Their versatility and inquisitive spirit has resulted in collaborations with Tom Poster, Nicholas Daniel, Sir Thomas Allen, Richard Sisson and Gabriel Prokofiev.

Alongside the competition, the Berkeley Ensemble have performed in a concert series inspired by Cobbett’s legacy as well as supporting a series of composition masterclasses lead by Michael Berkeley and other leading British composers.