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We’re thrilled to launch the LICCC Forge Bursary Fund, created in partnership with Forge and supported by the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust. This new initiative is designed to widen access to high-level conductor training and support the next generation of choral leaders across the UK. The fund provides up to £1,500 toward the cost of joining Forge’s 30-week online conductor training programme — a course that offers one-to-one mentorship, detailed rehearsal feedback, and the chance to learn within an international cohort of peers, all delivered online to remove geographical barriers, and fit around a freelance career. The bursary exists to ensure that outstanding conductors living or studying in the UK can take up their place, regardless of financial circumstance. Awards are made on the basis of financial need and artistic potential, and applications are accepted on a rolling basis for all 2026 Forge courses. Early applications are encouraged, as funding is limited. “This bursary will open doors for outstanding conductors who may otherwise have been unable to access the training they need to progress.” said James Davey, of LICCC. “We’re grateful to the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust for recognising the importance of developing the next generation of choral leaders.” If you have already been accepted on a Forge course and would like to apply for a bursary, please click here. 
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Agnes Schnabl of Austria has won the 2024 London International Choral Conducting Competition. She wins £5,000 and a place at the 2025 abcd annual convention.
Tobias Stückelberger of Switzerland placed second.
Heeseong Lee (South Korea), Olivia Shotton (UK) and Yuto Yamaguchi (Japan) were the other grand finalists. Photo credit of Agnes Schnabl: Anna Zehetgruber
It's been a busy couple of weeks for our national jury with over 80 applications received from across the globe. With the quality of entries extremely high, shortlisting was a real challenge. We're delighted to announce that fifteen young conductors have secured their place in the next round in London over the weekend of 31 October to 1 November 2024.
 One month remaining for submissions to the London International Choral Conducting Competition15/5/2024
Following an initial call for applications in March 2024, the founding committee of the London International Choral Conduction Competition (LICCC) has been delighted at the number of high-quality submissions received so far.
Today, we announce a final call for applications from emerging choral conductors aged 18 – 35 years from all over the world to compete in front of a distinguished international jury over the weekend of 31 October to 3 November 2024 at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Music. The competition, which launched to great acclaim in 2018, turns the spotlight on the next generation of choral conductors and, in the process, aims to forge stronger relationships in the international choral community. LICCC is proud to celebrate choral music-making of the highest quality. Through its competitive element, featuring a first prize of £5,000, it will give a significant boost to exceptional conductors in the earlier stages of their career. Hosted by premier London chamber choirs, Chantage and Coro, and joined by guest choirs, both from the UK and from overseas, including the world-renowned choir Tenebrae, the weekend festival will also feature masterclasses and a Gala Concert. Find out more about how to apply and the format of the competition here. Applications close on Saturday, 15 June 2024. For press and media enquiries, please contact [email protected] We are delighted to announce that applications are now open for the London International Choral Conducting Competition 2024!
We'll be back at the Royal Academy of Music in London between 31 October-3 November 2024 for the competition with our resident choirs, Chantage and Coro. What's new for 2024?
From the Founding Committee of the London International Choral Conducting Competition:
It is with regret that we announce that the return of LICCC will be in October 2024 and not, as we had hoped, in 2023. Our sadness has been made all the greater by the large number of enquiries which we have received from conductors eager to enter this year’s event. However, since securing all the necessary funding in a post-Covid environment has proved uncertain, we can not ask potential entrants to commit to the expense of a visit to London unless all details can be confirmed. The hard work and determination of our organisers and external partners remains undimmed and we are more sure than ever that LICCC2024 will finally build on the extraordinary success of our inaugural event in 2018. We would urge you to look out for details of entry for LICCC2024 which will be published early in the new year. If you have already registered your interest in competing then we will be in touch with you. If you have not, then you can do so now by subscribing to the mailing list at the bottom of this page and we will contact you at the appropriate time. In light of the interruptions which recent years have brought we look forward more than ever to welcoming you to London for LICCC2024. Many of you were with us when, in October 2018, the London International Choral Conducting Competition launched to widespread acclaim. The weekend-long event, based at London’s Royal Academy of Music, featured emerging conductors from six different nations, an international jury of practitioners from the UK, Ireland, Norway and Croatia, choirs from home and abroad, a programme of masterclasses for experienced students, and expert hands-on tuition in front of a full choir for young conductors.
Our plans for an enhanced “LICCC 2020” were already highly developed when the Covid-19 pandemic brought both our musical world and yours to a temporary halt. We had already secured the participation of another distinguished international jury, a superb guest choir from the USA and an opportunity to conduct the BBC Symphony Chorus for every finalist selected to come to London. It was a cause of great sadness that this potentially wonderful event had to be postponed. It is our intention to return, bigger and better than ever, in October 2022. Applications will open in February next year, so please look out for a message at that time. We sincerely hope that you will stay in touch with us and will continue to support LICCC when 2022 arrives. In the meantime, we wish you and yours health and happiness as we all strive to return to the musical life which we cherish. The London International Choral Conducting Competition regrets to announce that, owing to the international disruption caused by Covid-19 Coronavirus, LICCC 2020 will be postponed until 22-24 October 2021.
It is anticipated that the quickly developing situation over the next few months might disadvantage many applicants and LICCC is determined to ensure equity and transparency at every stage. We would like to express our thanks for the many enquiries about this year’s event. Please see the website liccc.co.uk or join the LICCC mailing list for the latest updates. We look forward to seeing you in London in 2021.  LICCC 2018, the inaugural edition of the London International Choral Conducting Competition held at the Royal Academy of Music, was won by Julia Selina Blank of Germany. Ms. Blank, 29, wins £5,000 and the LICCC trophy. “For me the spirit in this competition felt very special” she said. “The contestants were colleagues and everyone met to celebrate a weekend of great choral music. I am happy to have had the chance to experience this and highly recommend it for all the young choral conductors out there.” A second prize of £1,000 was won by Jack Apperley (UK). The other finalists included Pascal Adoumbou (France), Maria Avdeyeva (Russia), Rebecka Gustafsson (Sweden) and Jono Palmer (New Zealand). “This fantastic new conducting competition is long overdue for a country with such an immensely strong choral tradition.” Simon Halsey (Chorus Master, London Symphony Chorus, Berlin Philharmonic). The UK is a long-standing leading global hub for choral music and, whilst there are many competitions for choirs, instrumentalists and orchestral conductors, until now there has been nothing for choral conductors. LICCC aims to reflect the UK’s dominant reputation in this field by creating the world’s best competition in this space. At London’s Royal Academy of Music, a distinguished international jury, chaired by Prof Ragnar Rasmussen of Norway, adjudicated performances by LICCC’s winners and finalists. LICCC 2018 received a huge number of entries of a very high standard, from 30 countries and 6 continents. A highlight of the Grand Final was the world premiere performance of The Cries of Music by award-winning British composer, Janet Wheeler, with words specially written by Euan Tait. The piece beautifully and appropriately drew the parallel between the singers’ experience of choral music and our common human experience of life's trajectory from beginning to end. The event, which will next run in 2020, is open to choral conductors between the ages of 18 and 32 and is hosted by two London chamber choirs, Coro and Chantage, who were this year joined by distinguished Finnish ensemble cc FREIA under their conductor, the composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi. The focus of the weekend being emerging choral talent, there were also masterclasses and workshops directed by leading choral conducting tutors, and a Gala Concert by the three participant choirs. The founders of LICCC said “We have been delighted by the level of support from the musical community for this event, which we are convinced will have secured its place in the fabric of London’s world-renowned choral scene.”  Janet Wheeler The London International Choral Conducting Competition is delighted to announce a brand new choral work has been written specially for the competition. The piece – ‘The Cries of Music’ – has been composed by Janet Wheeler and set to a poem by Euan Tait, and provides the set piece for the Grand Final, for which the six finalists will conduct the combined choirs of Chantage, Coro and Chamber Choir cc FREIA. James Davey, one of the founders of LICCC, said: "Janet is excellent at writing for a variety of different forces and really “gets" choirs. We’re thrilled to be working with her and Euan on this project’. Facilitating excellence in all aspects of the choral world lies at the heart of LICCC’s mission, and commissioning new music written specifically for choirs is a vital part of this. It is particularly exciting to have a new text for the piece – Welsh librettist and poet Euan Tait was commissioned to write the text, and worked closely with Janet Wheeler on the piece." Janet Wheeler has said about setting Tait’s poem: "The invitation from Amy Bebbington and James Davey (LICCC founders) to compose the test piece for the inaugural LICCC presented a hugely exciting opportunity to set a wonderful new text by Euan Tait. The poem beautifully draws the parallel between the singer's experience of choral music and our common human experience of life's trajectory from beginning to end. I found the poem moving and powerfully inspiring, with its very musical combination of ideas from the aural and visual, the spiritual and emotional, all encompassed in a clear three-part structure - essentially birth, life and death. These sections are linked by a number of verbal motifs, reflected in my setting and developed musically across the course of the piece. Whenever I'm setting words, they always lead the way in my harmonic choices. The placing of harmonies and key changes give the chance to introduce elements of surprise and change among more settled sections and in this case to emphasise the arch shape and arrival points in each verse and across the piece as a whole. Each of Euan's verses begins with the word 'music' which I have set with a slightly extended hummed opening, wanting this hum to embody the moment of giving voice together in song, but also aware of how often humming starts the choral singer's warm-up. In response to the central more active section I've incorporated speed changes, partly to give artistic scope to the conductors. I'm very much looking forward to hearing how the competition finalists treat this and other interpretative matters in the six premiere performances of the competition. What a privilege it is to be involved in this exciting venture at the outset."  Euan Tait Euan Tait reflects on music’s life force:
"How wonderful, how unexpected, was Amy Bebbington’s email requesting a text for the first London International Choral Conducting Competition! As choral singing is about the roots of music, about the shared singing that is so natural to us and yet which takes so much dedication and hard work to shape to the highest standards, and as it concerns what it is to be human (people sing in harmony as an inherent human gift), Amy’s request stirred the roots of my own verbal music, and I immediately heard words about how music speaks for the hidden sufferings each of us live with, about the great, transforming energy of choral music, about the music of our final “welcome and farewell” – our goodbye to the old life, and welcome into the new. The words just poured out of me, as if they had been waiting a long time for this kind of commission. To sing of music, of singing - to be given this great opportunity to write a text for a new competition that will draw the very best from musicians - means that I sing in this poem of choral music as a fundamental, catalytic force within us, inherently part of the life-energies of our humanity, the song of our creation and powerful living, and finally, the song of our ultimate vulnerability when we fall into mercy at our deaths. This text is joyous and fiery, just as this great event is so life-giving, a shared and unforgettable experience. There is a particular power in choral singing that leaves a mark on everyone's being after every concert. I have a sense of great thanksgiving, and joy is the life-force of the words. I'm so thrilled with Janet's beautiful and insightful setting, and feel so privileged to work with such a powerful compositional voice." You can see the finalists conduct this thrilling new piece in the Grand Final on 21 October at the Royal Academy of Music – tickets are now available here. |
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November 2025
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London International Choral Conducting Competition is a registered charity in England and Wales.
Charity Number 1177794 |
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