New York, NY (Top40 Charts) BBC
Radio 3 calls for music lovers and amateur composers to write a tune for
Christina Rosetti's seasonal classic Love Came Down At Christmas as its Breakfast Christmas Carol Competition returns in 2021.
Submissions are welcomed in a wide-range of styles and will be judged by a panel chaired by Anna Lapwood, and including
Karen Gibson, Reverend Richard Coles, and Jumoké Fashola among others.
Shortlisted finalists will have their compositions broadcast on BBC
Radio 3.
A much-loved annual fixture of BBC
Radio 3's schedule, the Breakfast Christmas Carol Competition returns in 2021, marking in music the countdown to the festive season. This year,
Radio 3 is asking music lovers and amateur composers to write a tune setting the words of Victorian poet
Christina Rossetti's Love Came Down At Christmas.
As in 2020, the competition encourages submissions in all musical styles, from gospel to pop; jazz to folk; and beyond - delivered as notated scores or mobile phone-generated voice recordings. Any music lover aged 16+ is able to enter, and all judging is done on the merits of the tunes alone, with the panel given no information about the composers.
In charge of shortlisting the initial entries is a star-studded judging panel which includes The Kingdom Choir founder, conductor and workshop leader
Karen Gibson; Church of England parish priest, musician, journalist, and radio presenter Reverend Richard Coles; jazz singer and broadcaster Jumoké Fashola; and BBC Sport commentator and choral music lover Alison Mitchell. It is chaired by organist, conductor and broadcaster Anna Lapwood, currently serving as
Director of
Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Six entries will be shortlisted to go through to the second phase of the competition, when the successful entrants will have the chance to work with composer and choral director Ken Burton to turn the initial tunes into fully-arranged carols. These six arranged carols will then be performed live by the BBC Singers on BBC
Radio 3 Breakfast on Wednesday 15 December - opening the public vote. They will be presented across BBC
Radio 3 programmes until Tuesday 21 December - when voting closes. The winning carol will be announced in
Radio 3's Breakfast show on Wednesday 22 December.
Alan Davey, Controller BBC
Radio 3 and classical music says: "It is with great pleasure that we launch the 2021 Breakfast Carol Competition and hope that many listeners will accept our challenge to create a new melody for Rosetti's beautiful seasonal words. We had more entries than ever in 2020 from a wide range of people all over the country. We hope that even more will be inspired to dedicate time and inspiration to creating tunes and sharing them with us this year."
Anna Lapwood says: "One of my favourite things about working with composers is watching a piece of music come to life, developing from a small seed of an idea into a fully-formed piece. The R3 Carol Competition facilitates that process for so many people from across the UK, and it was so exciting to see the number of carol competition entrants triple last year. This year's poem is a personal favourite of mine and I hope it might inspire even more people to have a go at writing a carol. I'm particularly excited to be chairing the jury this year - having had Christmas music disrupted for the past two years, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is the year when we can return to hearty carol singing once more!'"
To find out more about how to enter and to submit melodies for BBC
Radio 3 Breakfast Carol Competition 2021, music lovers are invited to visit the
Radio 3 Breakfast Carol Competition website.
