Winners announced in Guildhall Young Artists' composition competition, RELEASE 2026

Guildhall School of Music & Drama is delighted to announce the winners of RELEASE 2026, Guildhall Young Artists’ (GYA) composition competition: Rania Firoozye, Abbey Whitman-Barton and Isaac Schaad. 

The competition aims to support the breadth of creativity of students across the GYA network. All finalists received cash prizes and an in-person masterclass with an industry leading artist. 

The three finalists in Release the Creativity will attend a live workshop at Guildhall School exploring creative collaboration with Guildhall industry professionals. The Release the Image winner will receive a live masterclass with composer and School alumna Debbie Wiseman OBE, while the Release the Notes winner will receive a live masterclass with Professor John Harle OBE and have their work commercially published by Saxtet Publications, a publishing company specialising in quality new sheet music for the saxophone. All three Release the Song finalists will receive mentoring from ‘Audio Network’ professionals and attend an orchestral session at Abbey Road. The winner will also receive a live masterclass with Paul Ressel. 

This year’s competition highlighted the extraordinary talent of young composers in the GYA network, which includes more than 1800 students aged 18 and under across six centres. This was the first year that the competition had no minimum age limit, making it open to all GYA students aged 4 to 18. The adjudication panels had the difficult decision of selecting from 81 entries a shortlist of 50 compositions, before a final three in each category.  

The final, held on Saturday 12 September at Guildhall School’s Milton Court Concert Hall, was hosted by Jeffery Wilson, founder and Creative Director of RELEASE, and actor and Guildhall alumna Sophia Roberts, and featured premiere performances of twelve new compositions. The finalists were chosen by an adjudicating panel consisting of saxophonist and owner of Saxtet Publications Tom Bruton, Deputy Head of Electronic & Produced Music & Lead Professor of Film Music at Guildhall School Barbara De Biasi, composer, orchestrator, and arranger Matthew Sheeran, and Sub-director of Studies and Teaching Associate at St John's College Tim Watts. 

With unlimited entries allowed, Junior Guildhall's Rania Firoozye set a competition record by winning two first and two second prizes. 

The winners and runners up in each category, were as follows:

Release the Creativity (collaborative work): 
Winner: Rania Firoozye (Junior Guildhall) – En las Carreras de Caballos (At the Horse Races)
Second Prize: Isaac Schaad (Junior Guildhall) – Burnt Norton
Third Prize: Yeva Makieieva (GYA Norwich) – The Little Tragedy

Release the Image (for film): 
Winner: Abbey Whitman-Barton (Centre for Young Musicians) – The Master Sword Emerges
Second prize: Rania Firoozye (Junior Guildhall) – Pickett’s Charge
Third prize: Koby Kalusinghe – Soundtrack to Rhythm 21

Release the Notes (for Saxophone and Piano): 
Winner: Rania Firoozye (Junior Guildhall) – Impressions
Second prize: Gael Lung (GYA Online) – Untitled 
Third prize: Zach Baldwin-Wright (Centre for Young Musicians) – Stallion Ride

Release the Song (for solo voice or vocal group):
Winner: Isaac Schaad (Junior Guildhall) – Two Shakespeare Songs: Sigh No More & It Was a Lover and his Lass
Second prize: Rania Firoozye (Junior Guildhall) – Keep them In
Third prize: Esther-Catherine Fabelurin (GYA King's Cross) – Thought I Could Trust You
 

Watch all of the finalists' pieces on Youtube.

Barbara De Biasi, Deputy Head of Electronic & Produced Music and Lead Professor of Film Music at Guildhall School said: “It is always a pleasure to review the Release the Image submissions, and I am delighted to see a clear pathway developing between the competition and the Electronic & Produced Music department at Guildhall, where I lead film music studies. 

It is wonderful to see this pathway in action: Charlotte Robertson and Arthur Underwood, who took part in the competition last year, are now about to begin their second year of a Bachelor of Music in Film Music and Game Audio in the Electronic & Produced Music department. It’s lovely to see the connection growing. 

All three of today’s finalists (for Release the Image) are incredibly talented and they made the decision quite difficult. I want to congratulate all three for their submission." 

Tom Bruton, Saxophonist and Owner of Saxtet Publications said: “I had a wonderful time experiencing the work of some fine young composers. The range of styles and the awareness of the Saxophone and its abilities was quite remarkable. Impressions by Rania Firoozye (first prize for Release the Notes), is an imaginative and excellently constructed work. I was ready for more. In fact, I would like to play this piece myself!”  

Matthew Sheeran, Orchestrator, Arranger and Producer said: “This was a difficult task for me since so many of the entries (for Release the Song) were of such a high standard. These (the three final compositions) are delightful, beautifully crafted pieces that hold the listener’s attention throughout and never outstay their welcome. Congratulations to everyone who took part”. 

Tim Watts, Sub-director of Studies, Teaching Associate, St John's College, Cambridge said: “One factor in making the adjudication of this category so difficult was the sheer quality and vitality of the creativity being ‘released’ by these young composers. If this is the standard of work being produced by Guildhall Young Artists under 18’s community, then the future of new music is assured”.

The finalists who won first prize told us what the competition means to them:

Abbey Whitman-Barton from Centre for Young Musicians said: 
"This was my first time entering any kind of composition competition and I am so happy to have placed as a finalist. I really enjoyed writing to picture and want to be a film and video game composer when I am older. I can’t wait to see what everybody else has come up with!" 

Rania Firoozye from Junior Guildhall said: "Being selected as a finalist for RELEASE has been an incredibly rewarding experience and has encouraged me to push my creativity even further. What I particularly value about this is the supportive and open environment it creates, giving composers the freedom to explore new ideas and develop their own musical voice. The experience has challenged me to approach composition from new perspectives, while also giving me greater confidence in my abilities. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities RELEASE has given me and proud to have been part of this year’s finals."

Isaac Schaad from Junior Guildhall said: "The joy of the whole thing is that it's such an eclectic competition, there's been a really wonderful breath of entries and it offers opportunities to young composers in all genres, forms and all media. There are so many opportunities across a whole breath of disciplines out there and it represents many of them. It's wonderful to have more recognition wanting to go into composition professionally later in life." 

Find out more about Guildhall Young Artists, Guildhall School's network of centres that provides inspiring performing and production arts training for children and young people.

_{Photo Credit: Paul Cochrane}