Image: 2023 Clements Prize finalists with Fidelio Trio and Simon Callaghan. Photo by Dan Evans.
Conway Hall Sunday Concerts is pleased to invite young composers to submit a work for piano duet to The Clements Prize 2025. Up to 8 submissions will be selected and will be performed by Clíodna Shanahan and Simon Callaghan at the final round in Conway Hall’s Main Hall on 2 November 2025 at 6.30pm. A workshop involving all the final round composers and the performers will take place at 2pm on the same date.
The winner of the first prize will be awarded £1,500.
Alfred J. Clements (1858-1938) was the organiser and secretary of the South Place Sunday Concerts (predecessor of Conway Hall Sunday Concerts) from their inception in 1887 until his death. In the first half of the twentieth century the competition bearing his name encouraged the composition of new chamber works, establishing a tradition which set Conway Hall right at the centre of British contemporary music.
Re-inaugurated in 2021, the present competition aims to continue this work, encouraging the composition of innovative, exciting chamber music and presenting it to a wide audience. Through workshops, social media activity and through enabling interaction with professional performers, the competition furthermore seeks to establish and nurture a community of diverse, young composers and to enhance the chamber repertoire.
Before the final round performance, scores submitted for previous competitions from the Conway Hall Archive will be available via the Conway Hall website and a selection exhibited before the final round performance.
We are indebted to Cockayne – Grants for the Arts for their support of young composers and The Clements Prize.
Call for Scores:
- We welcome the submission of new works for piano duet (two pianists at one piano).
- The submitted work must be no longer than 10 minutes in duration.
- No ‘prepared piano’ is permitted.
- Composers must be 35 years old or under on 2 November 2025.
- The scheme is open to UK and non-UK applicants, however applicants would need to cover their own expenses for international travel and accommodation to attend the final.
- We particularly would like to encourage a diversity of applications from under-served communities and under-represented backgrounds, including composers who are:
- women/non-binary
- from ethnic minority backgrounds
- living with a disability
- members of the LGBTQI+ community
How to apply:
1. Composers are required to submit:
- A PDF of the full score (A4), formatted to facilitate easy page turns
- A recording of the work either as an mp3 or as an electronic file (from Sibelius or similar software)
- A programme note of maximum 100 words, to be used in the programme and on Conway Hall’s website for the final round
2. We are unable to accept printed copies.
3. Composers selected for the final round on 2 November 2025 must be available to attend an afternoon workshop with Clíodna Shanahan and Simon Callaghan, the evening performance and prize presentation.
Process:
- A shortlist of compositions will be drawn up by Conway Hall’s Artistic Director and pianist-composer Richard Sisson in September 2025 and all composers will be notified of the result. We will also send brief feedback to all applicants.
- The final round will take place on 2 November 2025, 6.30pm at which all shortlisted compositions will be performed by pianists Clíodna Shanahan and Simon Callaghan in front of an audience and a panel of professional musicians. An afternoon workshop will take place from 2pm, at which all the chosen repertoire will be rehearsed in collaboration with the composers.
- In a new initiative for the 2025 competition, a further workshop will be arranged separately, for up to 6 composers who don’t progress to the final round, but whose works show promise. Details of this will be announced later in October.
The deadline for submission is Friday 5 September 2025, 5pm BST
About the Performers
Irish concert pianist Clíodna Shanahan is much in demand internationally as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. She performs regularly with the London Sinfonietta, UPROAR, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Britten Sinfonia. She has a great passion for contemporary music; premières she has given this season include works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Ashley John Long, Sun Keting, David John Roche, and Litang Shao. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has recorded for SOMM, Lyrita, and Nonesuch.
Her unique musicianship cannot be confined to a single artform and is regularly heard beyond the concert platform and recording studio. She particularly enjoys collaborating with dancers and choreographers; most recently with Lico Kehua Li and Sacha Waltz & Guests. Her formal musical training began at the School of Music in her native Limerick, followed by the Yehudi Menuhin School and Royal College of Music, London.
In addition to her performing career, Clíodna is committed to music education. She is Head of Keyboard at Dulwich College, a mentor for the Trinity Laban Graduate Fellowship Ensemble, and is regularly involved in masterclasses and educational programmes across the wider community.
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Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician alongside a highly successful recording career. A favourite at Germany’s renowned Husum Festival of Piano Rarities, his recent sell-out concert was praised by VAN Magazine as a “cleverly curated recital full of discoveries” and by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “technically brilliant”. He appears regularly in the UK’s major concert halls and tours Asia, North America and Europe.
As concerto soloist, he has collaborated with the Ulster Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Sinfonieorchester St Gallen, with conductors including Jac van Steen, Martin Yates and Martyn Brabbins. Recital partners include Miriam Margolyes, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Coco Tomita, Nicholas Daniel, Adrian Brendel and Raphael Wallfisch. He is also a founding member of the London Piano Quartet.
Callaghan’s distinguished discography includes recordings for Hyperion, Nimbus, Orchid Classics, Somm, and Lyrita. His recent single with Coco Tomita surpassed 1 million streams on Apple Music in its first month. He advocates for classical music through social media, particularly promoting rare and unexplored repertoire. His broad repertoire encompasses standard 19th and 20th-century works while increasingly focusing on lesser-known composers including Scholz, Rheinberger and Reinecke and Sauer. A cornerstone of his work is his commitment to British music, recording world premieres of British concertos and complete piano works by Rebecca Clarke, George Dyson and William Busch. He has recorded four albums for Hyperion’s celebrated The Romantic Piano Concerto series.
Callaghan serves as Artistic Director at London’s Conway Hall and is Professor of Piano at the Royal Northern College of Music. He was elected a Steinway Artist in 2012.