Winner of the Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022

Watch the whole Final here!

We are delighted to announce the winner of the Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022. The Grand Final was held in the Princess Alexandra Hall, Royal Over-Seas League last week.

Two panels of adjudicators made up of distinguished professionals and young emerging composers studied the entries carefully and announced the awards.

As well as the overall winner, we are also delighted to announce two other awards; the Young Adjudicators’ Award and the Audience Prize.

Overall Winner

Devon Packer, Canada.

“…reaching…”

by Devon Packer

Performed by: Akito Goto – Cello, Enyuan Khong – Violin, Francesca Lombardelli – Percussion, Jack Welch – Flute.

Conducted by: Philip Dutton
Recorded by: Tom Bell

This award means the world to me! It is a tremendous honour and a great validation of all the hard work that I have put into developing my own compositional voice. In previous works, there have been strong echoes of other composers that I admire. With this piece “…reaching…”, I feel I have finally written a piece that I can say is in my own style! I worked very hard to ensure that every single instrument had a rhythmic and a melodic purpose. In particular, I focused on the percussion, which doesn’t often get a big part in classical compositions.

Devon Packer

Winner, Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022

The Young Adjudicators Award

Felix Penna, France

“Sdrijn”

by Felix Penna

Performed by: Akito Goto – Cello, Enyuan Khong – Violin, Francesca Lombardelli – Percussion, Jack Welch – Flute.

Conducted by: Philip Dutton
Recorded by: Tom Bell

The Audience Prize

Jacob Abela, Malta

“Kaleidescope”

by Jacob Abela

Performed by: Akito Goto – Cello, Enyuan Khong – Violin, Francesca Lombardelli – Percussion, Jack Welch – Flute.

Conducted by: Philip Dutton
Recorded by: Tom Bell