There is so much to discover in classical music, and we can all benefit from a trusted guide. Wherever classical music is made, there are always writers and broadcasters close at hand, dedicated to drawing in audiences and illuminating the wonders in the music.

The RPS Young Classical Writers Prize aims to inspire young people to put pen to paper and voice their passions and opinions on music, in a personal and expressive way. The Prize is made possible thanks to a kind gift left to the RPS in the Will of classical music writer Gerald Larner. He wrote extensively for The Times and The Guardian and produced one of the definitive biographies of the composer Ravel.

This year our guest panellists were music journalist Kate Molleson who presents Composer of the Week on BBC Radio 3 as well as writing for The Guardian, Opera, Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine, and Gavin Plumley, a leading cultural historian, lecturer and author of A Home for All Seasons who features regularly on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. They were so impressed by all the entries, in particular the huge range of classical music that is captivating young people today.

We congratulate everyone who entered and encourage them all to keep writing. The winning entries this year are:

First prize: Will Fox – I was born listening to Schubert
25-year-old Will, an Oxford and Durham graduate, receives £500 and the opportunity to write for a major classical music organisation later this year, for his evocative reflections on Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B Flat, a work that – in his words – ‘has become quietly entangled with the course of my life’.

Second prize: Lola Flexen – The Problem of Playing Too Well (on Yuja Wang’s Hammerklavier)
22-year-old Lola is a postgraduate at the Royal Northern College of Music. She receives a prize of £250 for her rousing exploration of pianist Yuja Wang’s virtuosity and the ‘double standard by which men’s displays of effort are celebrated, and women’s effortlessness when faced with the same task is dismissed.’

Third prize: Toby Elms – Beethoven’s Fidelio: An opera filled with hope
17-year-old sixth former Toby, currently applying to study Music at university, receives £100 for his sensitive portrait of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio and its enduring resonance around political events affecting the world today.

If you’re a young person with a love of classical music, you may like to enter when we re-open applications in 2025. This year’s terms remain on our website here to give you a flavour of what’s required. Follow our social media @RoyalPhilSoc for further details and keep writing about the music you love.

Without Gerald Larner’s gesture, we would not be able to present the RPS Young Classical Writers Prize. If, like Gerald, you may like to do something that fosters future engagement with classical music, and – if you wish – allies your name to it, we would be so pleased to talk further. You can read more about this prospect here on our website. Thank you.