Alumnus Ben Bloor wins the Blackburn Cathedral Organ Composition Competition

Blackburn Cathedral recently announced the winners of its sixth organ composition competition, with alumnus Ben Bloor (New College, 2011) taking first prize with his piece Ave Maris Stella (after Litanies). The aim of this series of competitions is to provide new, accessible organ music of a high quality relating to important occasions in the church year - and this voluntary was to be played as a postlude for a Marian feast. The competition was sponsored by Charles and Camilla Hadcock, and the judges were James Orford, Richard McVeigh, and John Hosking.

Ben Bloor is the Organist of the London Oratory Church and he combines this with a busy freelance recital career and the post of School Organist at Westminster School, teaching organ and playing for services in Westminster Abbey. Previously, he held organ scholarships at Derby Cathedral, St George's Chapel Windsor Castle, New College Oxford and Westminster Cathedral, and was the Assistant Sub-Organist at Rochester Cathedral. He was awarded second prizes in the Boston Bach International Organ Competition 2018 and also the Canadian International Organ Competition in 2021. In 2023, he won the Douglas May Award at the St Albans International Organ Competition. He is a recipient of the Worshipful Company of Musicians' Silver Medal for his contribution to organ playing and held the Junior Fellowship at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.