In the autumn of 2025, Newcastle Bach Choir launched a competition for a North East student to compose a piece for performance at our Christmas concert. We had a good level of interest, and the clear winner was a piece by Luna Oladiji of Durham University on the theme of Winter, title Dreading the Winter's Near. We have decided to delay performing the piece until our Christmas concert in 2026, and we will be learning it later this year. We plan to run another student competition in due course, for a work to be performed in Summer 2027. These competitions are very much part of the choir's mission to support education and promote new music.