We are delighted to announce the inaugural winner of the Brusa Foundation Award for the year 2024:

GÜRAY KAPUCU, from Izmir, Turkey (Türkiye) born in 2000, for his work “Bird in a Cage”.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58jjKKABdFE

We found his work fresh, inspired, fluid, colourful, rhythmically complex but always natural. A musical journey full of fantasy and a joy to listen to. We would also like to highlight how much we were impressed by the composer’s freedom of thought. 

The Foundation Committee was thrilled to receive over 85 scores from 35 countries. Sadly, there were another two entries that did not meet our standards in terms of musical competence and were by composers who fell outside of our strict age limits.

The quality of many of the submissions was very high, and we were extremely happy to discover so many talented composers. For this reason, we felt it necessary to publish the names and works of certain candidates whose compositions we felt were also of merit.  

The Foundation would therefore like to give Honourable Mentions to:  (In no particular order)

Zhiyang Zhang, from China, born in 1998, for “Chasing the Moon”.

Tomos Owen Jones, from Wales (United Kingdom), born in in 1996, for “Flow – Journey of a River”.

Tok Jun Hui, from Singapore, born in 2005, for “One Room of Happiness”.

Gianluca Piombo, from Italy, born in 1995, for “Variazioni Sinfoniche”.

Jihang Dai, from China, born in 2000, for “Scherzo”. 

Michael Phillips, from the United Kingdom, born 1993 (still 30 at the 15^th October), for “Cradle”.

We urge all eligible candidates to submit their compositions next year, even those who have already won or have been awarded an Honourable Mention. However, if you already applied in 2024, we would ask you to please use a different pseudonym upon application. Information about the 2nd Award (2025) will be found on our page and on the ‘Musical Chairs’ website from February. Please read and follow the instructions carefully to avoid disqualification. 

The Brusa Foundation