The Mendelssohn Scholarship

To apply for the Mendelssohn Scholarship, you must be:

• Studying or intending to study on a Postgraduate course in composition (final year undergraduate students may also be considered)
• Under the age of 30 as of 31 January 2025
• Resident in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland

To apply for the scholarship, you must be able to demonstrate your ability and experience as a composer.

The application form will ask you to provide the following:

• A biography that details your key achievements to date as a composer. You should include information about previous commissions, performances of your work, any press, details of where you have studied including who you have studied with and details of any competitions or awards you may have received
• How you would use the scholarship and the impact further tuition in the UK or a music centre abroad will have on your career at this particular point. You should include information on the learning you would receive and what opportunities you would embrace during this time
• Your longer-term ambitions and your plans to achieve them. You should tell us your short term goals and how these will help you to achieve your longer term ambitions

You will be asked to demonstrate your current ability by providing us with some examples of your recent compositions. You should submit three manuscript scores, one of which must be accompanied by a recording. A recording must also be submitted where the composition contains a significant electronic component. You can either provide these as a file upload within the application form, or via a file sharing website, however please make sure the links provided do not expire and we are able to access these right up until July.

Should you be successful, you would have two years to spend the award. We will request evidence of place acceptance and enrolment before releasing your award. You will receive your award in instalments, and you will be required to send through regular reports which will be shared with the trustees.

1856 Arthur Seymour Sullivan

1865 Charles Swinnerton Heap

1871 William Shakespeare

1875 Frederick Corder

1879 Maude Valerie White

1881 Eugene D’Albert

1884 Marie Wurm

1891 Sidney Peine Waddington

1895 Hugh Christopher Wilson

1899 Percy Hilder Miles

1904 George Dyson

1909 Eric William Gritton

1912 Joseph Alan Taffs

1916 Philip Levi

1921 Arthur Lawrence Sandford

1923 Percy Purvis Turnbull

1927 Godfrey Sampson

1929 David Moule Evans

1932 Clifton Ivor Walsworth

1935 Daniel Jenkyn Jones

1938 Patrick Edward Smerdon Piggott

1946 Jocelyn Roy Lubbock

1948 Malcolm Henry Arnold

1950 Kenneth Leighton

1952 John Arthur Neill Lambert

1953 James Sidney George Stevens

1954 William Francis Burt

1956 John Albert Exton

1960 David Leonard Blake

1962 Richard Stoker

1964 Patric Standford

1966 Michael Short

1968 Brian Ferneyhough

1970 Jonathan Lloyd (Special award to Nicola Lefanu)

1972 Nicola Lefanu

1974 Richard Blackford

1976 Ian McQueen

1978 Paul Parkinson

1980 Lionel Sainsbury

1982 Mark Anthony Turnage

1982 Steve Martland (PRS/​Mendelssohn Scholar)

1984 James Harley

1986 Javier Alvarez

1988 Martin Butler

1992 Philip Cashian

1994 Luminita Spinu

1997 Richard Causton (150th Anniversary)

2000 Luke Bedford

2002 Cheryl Frances-Hoad

2004 Oliver Searle

2006 Nadja Plein

2008 Steven Daverson

2010 Samuel Bordoli

2012 Christian Mason

2014 Arne Gieshof

2016 Nicholas Moroz

2018 Nicholas Morrish

2020 Angela Slater

2021 Hugo Bell

2022 Amelia Clarkson

2023 Jasper Dommett