JAM Call for Music 2026

JAM's annual call is for composers writing choral and brass music rather than for performers: it's open to any piece for SATB choir, brass quintet, organ, or a combination of the three, up to ten minutes long, and short fanfares or miniatures are welcome too. You can enter up to three works, they don't have to be unperformed premieres, and texts can be in any language as long as you hold the copyright clearance to use them. There's no entry fee. Submissions go in as an anonymised PDF score, with an optional recording or mock-up to help the judges, and you need to confirm you were born in, live in, or study in the UK and are 18 or older — any career stage, any musical style. A panel of working composers and performers reads every entry; roughly five pieces are chosen out of the 200-plus submitted each year, based on their own judgment of the music rather than a published checklist of criteria. Instead of a cash prize, selected composers get a professional London premiere — performed by the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College Cambridge, the brass ensemble Onyx Brass and organist Simon Hogan at St Bride's Church on 23 March 2027 — plus a multi-camera film and audio recording of the performance that's theirs to use for life. Results are announced by the end of January 2027.