The Henfrey-Spitalfields Composition Prize
at St Catherine’s College, Oxford
Toby Young, composer/adjudicator
Slide Action Trombone Quartet
£1000 prize
London premiere at the Spitalfields Music Festival
Call for participants
The annual Henfrey Prize for Composition supports the creation of outstanding new chamber/acoustic music, and is open to students and recent graduates from the University of Oxford. The winning entry will be awarded a prize of £1000 and a London premiere at the Spitalfields Music Festival in July 2026.
Required Workshop – November 2025
Interested composers are invited to attend an initial workshop with Slide Action Trombone Quartet on Sunday, 9th November 2025 at St Catherine’s College. This is an opportunity to become familiar with the performers and the instrumentation. After the workshop, all attendees will be invited to apply to the competition. Please note that attending this workshop required to apply for the competition.
The application will include a proposal, describing the applicant’s interest in composing for the duo, and a brief description of the piece they plan to write. Full application details are below.
Competition Process
From these applications, up to four composers will be selected to participate in this year’s competition. Competition participants will have six weeks to write a new 7-10 minute work for the trombone quartet. Individual part-writing sessions with the musicians will take place in January 2026, and revisions to scores and parts will be due at the end of that month.
The compositions will then be workshopped in-person in February 2026, presenting an opportunity to receive feedback from Toby Young (composer, adjudicator) and the musicians. Following these workshops, candidates will be given time to revise their compositions before the final submissions are due in early April.
In Trinity Term, the process will end with a concert at St Catherine’s College. All four pieces will be premiered by Slide Action. The concert will end with Toby Young announcing the prize winner.
The winner will receive the cash prize and the invitation to their London premiere. All composers will receive archival-grade recordings of their compositions to use for professional development.
Schedule
- Friday, 7th November 2025 – Deadline to register for the required workshop
Registration is available here - Sunday, 9th November 2025 – Initial in-person workshop with featured musicians
St Catherine’s College, 2-5pm - Friday, 14th November 2025 – Application deadline
5pm - Friday, 28th November 2025 – Successful applicants will be selected and notified
- Friday, 9th January 2026 – Scores and parts deadline
- January 2026 – Individual instrumental workshops with featured musicians
Online, date tbc - Friday, 20th February 2026 – In-person composition workshop
St Catherine’s College, 2-5pm - Friday, 10th April 2026 – Final scores and parts deadline
- Friday, 29th May 2026 – 5.15pm – Public Performance & Prize Presentation
St Catherine’s College, 5.15pm - July 2026 – London premiere, Spitalfields Music Festival
Date tbc
Eligibility
This competition is open to any current student or recent graduate (course completed after May 2023) of the University of Oxford. It is open across all undergraduate and postgraduate courses of study.
Application Process (after required attendance at November 2025)
The following application materials should be submitted to Tamsin Evans-Higgs (masters.office@stcatz.ox.ac.uk) by Friday, 14th November 2025.
Please note that applications will only be accepted from those who attended the November workshop.
- A 300 to 500-word proposal, describing your interest in composing for Slide Action Trombone Quartet, and describing the piece you aim to write
- One 5 to 7-minute existing or new score for chamber ensemble (no more than 11 musicians), or an excerpt of the same duration (PDF format only)
- A programme note about the composition (do not include information about performers, commissioners, or premieres)
- An audio recording or midi mock-up of the composition
- A CV of no more than 2 pages
Applications will be reviewed by Dr Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey, Director of Performance at St Catherine’s College and Slide Action. The selection process is necessarily subjective, and all aspects of an applicant’s materials will be considered, including any personal or demographic details that applications might wish to share.
Selection criteria will include:
- Creative engagement with this unique opportunity
- Presentation of musical and artistic ideas
- Previous compositional experience
The Henfrey-Spitalfields Prize for Composition is an inclusive competition. Please contact Dr Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey (cayenna.ponchione@stcatz.ox.ac.uk) with any questions, or to request access to support or accommodations.
About the artists
Slide Action Trombone Quartet
Formed in 2018, Slide Action are a multi-award-winning quartet, passionate about creating a new voice for the trombone. They regularly commission music
from composers and collaborate with other musicians. They have had multiple competition successes including winning the 2019 International Trombone
Association Quartet & the 2020 Royal Over Seas League Mixed-Ensemble competitions.
In 2024, Slide Action released their debut album on the NMC – The RE:BUILD. This album is a statement of their progress over the last few years and asks the question where they might go next? RE:BUILD is a unique concept featuring commissions from 5 world-renowned British composers (Emily Hall, Laura Jurd, Ryan Latimer, Alex Paxton and Joanna Ward) connected with interludes composed or arranged by the members of Slide Action to create one seamless listening experience. The album was received to universally high acclaim, winning BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Album of the Month’ and 4barsrest’s Solo/Chamber album of the year. It has also been nominated in 2 categories at the 2024/25 BBC Music Magazine awards.
In 2021-22 Slide Action were Britten Pears Young Artists where they worked with numerous emerging & established composers. Highlights included the world premiere of Robin Haigh’s Concerto for 4 trombones and orchestra – THE DREAMERS, and their own show ‘Rebuilding the Trombone’ featuring 8 new works. Committed to the development of new music, they have self-produced an extensive 4-part video series for aspiring composers in which they demystify writing for trombone. This covers every imaginable question from the most basic sounds, all the way to notating obscure extended techniques. In addition to this, Slide Action (in partnership with Britten Pears Arts and the City of London Sinfonia) premiered Sound Factory, their new learning & participation show suitable for ages 7 to 70, expanding their outreach to connect musically with wider audiences.
Over the past few years Slide Action’s recording portfolio has continued to grow; they featured on the debut solo album release from James Fountain (Principal trumpet of the London Symphony Orchestra), and in 2023 recorded a major new work by Gabriel Jackson with Merton College Choir, Oxford. This was released on Delphian in November 2024. Autumn 2023 saw their first European tour where they enjoyed six sold-out concerts. More recently in 2024 they have given debut performances at the Wooler Arts and Spitalfields festivals. 2025 will see them undertake new collaborations with to-be-announced major artists and a new series of intimate concerts featuring
music written by the group itself.
The members of Slide Action are all professional trombonists; working with orchestras, bands and shows all across the UK and Europe. Collectively they have worked with the Royal Philharmonic, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Aurora, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony and Welsh National Opera Orchestras, to name but a few.
Toby Young, composer
Toby Young is Professor of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where his work spans composing, producing, and developing innovative approaches to music-making. His music has been commissioned and performed worldwide – by ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra and the choirs of Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral – and is published by Oxford University Press. Alongside his classical output, he has collaborated with leading artists such as Chase & Status, Duran Duran, and the Rolling Stones, and his work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 6Music, and 1Xtra.
As a producer, Toby has worked with major opera companies and orchestras including the Royal
Opera House, English National Opera, Opera North, and the Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as for
film and streaming platforms, with recent projects including a new La bohème for Netflix/Finite
Films. He was previously Head of Music for immersive theatre pioneers Punchdrunk, creating sound for The Burnt City (“the world’s largest immersive theatre show”) and BAFTA-nominated The Third Day for Sky/HBO.
Toby’s research and creative practice focus on how technology can reshape composition and performance. He directs Immersive Opera (2024–32), a £1.4m UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship exploring extended reality, spatial sound, and interactive design as tools for reimagining opera and music-theatre. His publications include the Cambridge Companion to Composition (2024), Opera
Remixed (2025), and the Cambridge Companion to Electronic Dance Music (2025 forthcoming).
Passionate about socially engaged practice, Toby has led projects with young offenders, refugees, and massed community choirs, including It Takes a City, premiered at the Royal Albert Hall with 2,000 young singers as part of the Coventry City of Culture. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, he combines a track record of innovation with a commitment to nurturing the next generation of composers.