LILLY Vadaneaux has become the youngest ever winner of the NCEM Composers Award 2013 in York at the age of only 11.

Lilly was also the youngest ever entrant in the age 18 and under category of the annual competition run by the National Centre for Early Music, York, in partnership with BBC Radio 3 and the early music group Florilegium.

Meanwhile, Joseph Howard, 20, won the age 19 to 25 category at last Saturday’s final with his composition Move!. This will be premièred by Florilegium, along with Lilly’s Sarabande in F sharp minor, at the Bath International Music Festival at St. Mary's Church, Bathwick on June 1 at 5pm, when it will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show on June 23.

Lilly, from London, studies composition with Paul Whitmarsh and piano with Stephen Coombs at the Guildhall School of Music junior department.

“The viola d'amore and its resonating sound inspired me to build on a theme that came to me one day at the piano,” she says of her winning composition. “Just like the key of F sharp minor, the theme is bright and sad at the same time. The flute and the viola d'amore carry the melody together, supporting each other like dance partners. The cello anchors the harmony with its deep, extended notes, while the harpsichord part glides up and down the keyboard in rhythmic waves.

“When the opening theme returns, the melody is never exactly as it was – the musicians are in a new place, playing echoes of something from the past, like a memory.”

Fellow winner Joseph Howard began his musical studies at 12, studying piano under the tutelage of University of York composer Edd Caine. The first public performance of his work was given at York Late Music Festival 2011 and he is now in his second year at the University of Birmingham, studying acoustic and electro-acoustic composition.

For the 2013 competition, young composers living in Britain were invited to create a contemporary response to a predominant chamber music form of the Baroque, the dance suite. They had to write a new three to four minute instrumental dance for the four core players of Florilegium, scored for flute or recorder; violin or viola d'amore; cello or piccolo-cello; harpsichord or organ.

The composers were encouraged to base it on any dance-form they wished and to consider all eras and cultures, old or new, from the reel to the rumba. Seven finalists were selected and invited to the National Centre for Early Music last Saturday, when their entries were workshopped by Florilegium and Christopher Fox, composer and Professor in Music at Brunel University, London.

The other finalists in the 18-and-under category were Lillie Harris, The Dahomey Amazons Take A Tea Break; Kethaki Prathivadi, Vivimos El Tango; and Yuanfan Yang, Crushed Suites. Joining Howard in the older category were Seán Doherty, Springar, and Marianna Filippi, The Charlatan's Masquerade.

Florilegium performed each piece at a public concert, in front of a panel of judges comprising Delma Tomlin, director of the NCEM, Chris Wines, senior music producer of BBC Radio 3, and Ashley Solomon, Florilegium’s director.

Reflecting on last Saturday’s event, Delma says: “Yet again we’ve been astonished by the consistently high standard of entries and wealth of ideas around the given theme. It’s inspiring to witness these young composers collaborate with each other and clearly enjoy their time at the NCEM with members of Florilegium and Christopher Fox.

“We look forward to the premieres of the winning pieces at Bath International Music Festival, which is a great honour for these young composers at the outset of their careers. As the National Centre for Early Music, our partnership with Bath broadens the geographical significance of this award for young composers across the UK and follows past NCEM Composers Award premieres in Durham in 2012 and London in 2011.”

Chris Wines is equally enthusiastic. “BBC Radio 3 is delighted to be a partner – for the fifth year running – of this increasingly successful and creative award for young composers. Our weekend Early Music Show provides the ideal platform with which to bring Lilly Vadaneaux and Joseph Howard’s imaginative new works to a wide audience.”

Florilegium director Ashley Solomon concurs. “We’ve thoroughly enjoyed being part of this unique competition in collaboration with BBC Radio 3 and the NCEM,” he says. “From more than 70 entries, to have selected the final seven was a challenge in itself.

“All of the compositions presented in last Saturday’s performance deserve to win accolades for their inventiveness, creativity and unique take on the original remit. As an ensemble we’ve enjoyed the process of learning these short new works, collaborating with the composers in the workshop and delivering this final performance.

“While all the finalists clearly understood the challenge set in writing a contemporary work for period instruments, the two winning works stand out as exceptional compositions and we look forward to their official premiere as part of the Bath International Festival.”

Last weekend’s concert was streamed live and is available until May 20 at new.livestream.com/YorkEarlyMusic/composers. The shortlisted entries were recorded by music technology students from the University of York and can be heard on the NCEM website, ncem.co.uk/composersaward2013