Supporting the next generation of choral composers with a $5000 reward, the inaugural Helen Channon Memorial Prize has been awarded to Lucy Blomfield, a PhD student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Her composition, A Struggle for Life, premieres in Verbrugghen Hall today, 23 May.

Growing up surrounded by the sounds of Elena Kats-Chernin, Paul Stanhope, Luke Byrne, Joseph Twist, among others, Blomfield will use the prize to further develop A Struggle for Life, which explores contrasting layers of sound in a work for organ and choir.

Lucy Blomfield. Photo supplied

Open to undergraduate and postgraduate students at the SCM, the Helen Channon Memorial Prize involved submitting an original choral or choir and organ composition that has not previously been performed or published. Blomfield’s A Struggle for Life was chosen unanimously by the three-person jury panel.

“A Struggle for Life is about how unlikely and amazing life is,” Blomfield said. “I was excited to write for the Verbrugghen organ as it’s one of Sydney’s best organs, and the organ is an instrument of infinite tone colours and timbres. At the end of my piece, you will hear the Verbrugghen organ producing a sound...