Calling all composers! Birthday fanfare competition for Cheltenham Music Festival

Cheltenham Music Festival will announce its 75^th birthday with a 'Fanfare for Three Trumpets'. The Festival is calling for composers of all ages and musical ability to submit a fanfare, with a cash prize of £250 for the winner.

The closing date is Monday 1 July with the winning fanfare to be performed by professional musicians on the Free Stage in Cheltenham’s Imperial Gardens and all over town on Friday 5 July.

The competition is open to anyone who can compose and notate a simple score for three trumpets lasting between 1-2 minutes. The fanfare will be performed as the opening event of the Free Stage programme, heralding three days of free concerts showcasing jazz, folk, indie, gospel and world music and family activities. The Opening Weekend is presented in partnership with Classic FM.

Judging the competition will be trumpet virtuoso and Music Festival Artistic Director Alison Balsom. She said: “We want to launch our Opening Weekend in style and what better way to get everyone’s attention than Cheltenham’s very own fanfare. I am looking forward to hearing all the entries and choosing a fanfare that will capture the excitement of our 75^th anniversary. I hope lots of people of all ages will be inspired to enter.”

Help is at hand on the Cheltenham Festivals website with a How To Guide to writing and submitting a fanfare. Entrants will need to submit a written score as both a PDF and a MP3 file by 5pm on Monday 1 July 2019.