The 2025 Competition Categories & Prizes
Rules & conditions can be found here.
Senior Competition
Post-grade 8
Entry for Shortlisting (Cost £65 / €70)
Rehearsal – 1.5 hours on the competition instrument
Level – Post-Grade 8 Standard
Age – 21 or under on Monday 11 August 2025
Programme: A 20-minute recital which must include a work by J S Bach.
Venue: St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, Armagh
Date/time: Monday 11 August 12:30pm–10pm
Prizes
First Prize: £4,000
Second Prize: £1,000
Third Prize: £500
Recitals
A portfolio of prize recitals in this category will be announced on Monday 31 April.
The Dame Gillian Weir Medal plus £300, for the standout performance of a single piece by any composer.
Bach Prize: £300 for the best Bach performance
Dame Gillian Weir Medal:
This bespoke medal, created by the award-winning Northern Ireland silversmith, Joel Smyth, was commissioned by NIIOC in 2018 to celebrate the exceptional work of our Patron Dame Gillian Weir both as a musician and educator. It will be awarded by the jury, on behalf of Dame Gillian, for the performance of a single work which they consider the most outstanding in the Senior category.
Intermediate Category
Grades 6-8 standard
Entry for Shortlisting (Cost £45 / €50)
Rehearsal – 1 hour on the competition instrument
Level – Grades 6-8 Standard (competitors must not have gained a diploma)
Age – 21 or under on Tuesday 12 August 2025
Programme: A recital lasting no more than 12 minutes, which must consist of two or three pieces.
Venue: St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, Armagh
Date/time: Tuesday 12 August at 1pm
Prize
First Prize: £500
Second Prize: £300
Third Prize: £200
Junior Category
Grades 4-5
Entry for Shortlisting (Cost £20 / €25)
Rehearsal – 1 hour on the competition instrument
Level – Grades 4-5 Standard
Age – 21 or under on Tuesday 12 August 2025
Programme: A recital lasting no more than 8 minutes, which must consist of two or three pieces.
Venue: St. Malachy's Church
Date/time: Tuesday 12 August at 10:30am
Prize
First Prize: £300
Second Prize: £200
Third Prize: £100
The 2025 Jury
The 2025 jury will be announced shortly
Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin (Chair of Jury)
Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin has been organist of the Great Organ of Saint Sulpice in Paris since 1985 and was appointed titular organist in February 2023. She shares this position with Karol Mossakowski. She is the first woman to hold this title at one of the three largest organ tribunes in Paris. Between 1983 and 2013 she was Emeritus organist of the Great Organ of Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle in Paris.
She is recognised as one of the finest improvisers of her generation and in 1990, after advanced study with Loïc Mallié, she became the first woman to win second prize in improvisation at the Chartres International Organ Improvisation Competition. Her extensive international career has seen her give recitals worldwide, in more than 35 countries. Sheregularly sits on juries for international competitions. These have included Longwood Gardens, Québec, Chartres and St. Albans, and in 2008 she was appointed Professor of Organ in Performance and Improvisation at the Royal College of Music in London. She has also been guest professor at Yale University.
Her recordings of Bach, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Franck, Rheinberger, Messiaen, Grunenwald and Roth, along with her recorded improvisations, have garnered high praise and on 14 July 2024 she was nominated to the grade of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by presidential decree.
Simon Harden
Simon Harden lectures in Organ performance at the TU Dublin Conservatoire and is Organist and Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford. Regular concert engagements take him throughout Europe and further afield. He has performed solo recitals in such venues as Notre-Dame Paris, La Sainte-Trinité Paris, Westminster Abbey London, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, St Jacobi Hamburg and the Martinikerk Groningen.
Simon began his studies at Trinity College Dublin reading Music and History of Art. Further studies at the Music Academies in Berlin (Leo van Doeselaar) and Hamburg (Wolfgang Zerer and Pieter van Dijk) led to a first-class Postgraduate degree in performance followed by a ‘Premier Prix’ for his studies in France (Eric Lebrun). On receiving a scholarship from the City of Hamburg, he took the ‘Konzertexamen’ with distinction, the highest award for performance in Germany.
David Hill
David Hill is widely recognized as one of the leading choral directors in the UK. His fine musicianship is recognised through his appointments as Artistic Director of the Bach Choir, London and Yale Schola Cantorum, a Past President of the Royal College of Organists, former Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers and former Organist and Director of Music of Westminster Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral and St John’s College Cambridge.
David is a patron of the competition and has been a jury member every year since its inception. Born in Carlisle and educated at Chetham’s School of Music, of which he is now a Governor, he was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the remarkably young age of 17. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Southampton for Services to Music, and in March 2018, he was honoured with the prestigious Royal College of Organists medal, in recognition of distinguished achievement in choral conducting and organ playing.
In January 2019 David Hill was awarded an MBE for services to music.
The Venues
The Organ of St Patrick's (C of I) Cathedral, Armagh
St. Malachy's Church Organ, Armagh
OUR 2024 FUNDERS
