Be inspired. Be empowered. Be creative!
6th August 2026 – 11th August 2026 at Benenden School, Kent
A unique and inspirational opportunity for creative young composers and songwriters aged 14-18 to take their music making to the next level!
Have your music brought to life by one of NYJC’s exceptional nonets comprised of talented young musicians aged 14-18, who were selected from NYJC’s national summer school audition tour!
During the course you’ll explore your creative ideas while developing your compositional skills and creative palette to establish a unique and personal style.
Each composer and songwriter will generate new music for one of NYJC’s nine-piece ensembles, working in a truly welcoming, creative, and professional environment, supported by world-class composers and top-ranking young improvisers.
Participants will be well supported through out with the help of a bespoke handbook and playlist, tutorials and seminars led by professional composers, opportunities to meet, rehearse and record with their chosen nine-piece ensemble and on-hand technical support to help with the editing of scores and parts and videoing the final performance. NYJC asks in return that all participants be punctual, organised and focused.
Find out more about the course & see what our previous cohort had to say!
What the Course Offers
An insight into how to share your creative ideas with improvisers (in ways that allow them to contribute to your story-telling and musical journey) through exploration and experimentation within a diverse range of musical styles, elements and stimuli.
NYJC is known for ensuring all young creators feel able to share their personal interests and musical likes, collectively finding new ways of creating a bespoke and highly programmatic sound world.
ALUMNI: Previous composition students, including Laura Jurd, Alexandra Ridout, Rosie Turton, Oli Vibrans, Alex Paxton, Jas Kayser, have gone on to flourish in compositional careers either writing to commission or for their own ensembles, often being awarded JazzFM and Parliamentary Jazz awards and Ivor and Paul Hamlyn composition awards.
Course Requirements
Applicants are not expected to play a musical instrument or improvise (though it’s fine if you do!). Not all professional composers and songwriters are accomplished instrumentalists. That’s why we’re pairing each of the composers and songwriters with one of NYJC summer school’s advanced nine-piece ensembles (hear 2025’s summer school concert sets), drawing on the summer school’s 45 advanced instrumentalists and singers aged 14-18 (basic nonet structure is a 4-piece “rhythm section” e.g. piano guitar bass and drums, and five “front line” players e.g. voice, clarinet, violin or flute, trumpet, saxes, trombone).
We’re keen to unlock the creative door for young composers and songwriters from all creative backgrounds, who are really keen to develop their skills and take things to a new level (which we can support as NYJC works with a diverse faculty of creative musicians).
Timetable
The Composition Summer School takes place over 6 days.
- Four days of seminars, tutorials (exploring an eclectic mix of contemporary works for small ensembles), supervised composition time (supported by musicians to try things out), and concerts (the Vocal Jazz Camp concert and Summer School tutors’ gig).
- Two days of getting the music workshopped, videoed and performed (participants are welcome to submit the video of their piece in their GCSE and A’ level portfolio).
Composers will also be invited to attend a livestream premiere event after the course (during the Autumn school term), where we showcase the new compositions and chat with the composers about their process, experience, and musical journey.
Application Process
Applications are open to 14–18-year-olds (19 if taking a gap year).
Candidates will be asked to complete an online application form accompanied by one example of their creative work (a recording as a file, link to a score or lead sheet). Additional examples of work will be welcome but optional. The application form will take 15-20 minutes to complete.
We want to make sure everyone feels comfortable about coming to work with NYJC and understand that candidates may want to get to know the creative team leading the course; we’re equally as keen to meet applicants ahead of the Composition Summer School!
Therefore, after submitting their application, candidates will be invited to attend an online interview with course leader and NYJC Founding Artistic Director Issie Barratt.
Application deadline: Sunday 10th May 2026
Dates
Composition Summer School: Thursday 6 August – Tuesday 11 August 2026
Cost
The registration fee for the Composition Summer School is £485*
This covers accommodation, food (breakfast, lunch and dinner, and all teaching and activities throughout the duration of the course.)
*NYJC offers bursaries
We don’t want anyone to miss out because they cannot afford the fees. NYJC offers means-tested bursaries for those needing financial help. This can include covering the full cost of the course enrolment fee, and transport costs to both our free auditions and the summer school. Bursaries also cover the cost of an accompanying traveller for under 16s.
It’s a really magical, once in a lifetime, highly memorable kind of thing we’ll be doing! Can’t wait to meet everyone!” Issie Barratt, NYJC’s Artistic Director
Working with Issie, introduced me to so many new sounds and ideas: It was truly inspirational – helping me find my own voice and style” Composition Student 1
Who’s Leading the Course?
Issie Barratt
Cited by BBC Radio 4’s Women in Music Power list 2018 as one of the 40 most influential women in the music industry, Issie Barratt is an Internationally active multi award-winning composer, saxophonist, musical director, record producer and educator, known internationally for her eclectic approach to creative music making, both through her catalogue of compositions and her founding Trinity Laban’s Jazz Faculty, the National Youth Jazz Collective, Fuzzy Moon Records (celebrating 150 international musicians) and the critically acclaimed Interchange Dectet (championing 40 female improvisers and composers).
“Issie’s breadth of musical and cultural understanding coupled with her natural ability to facilitate divers collectives of highly creative artists brings a freshness and excitement to collaboration – resulting in inspirational excellence and newly found outcomes” Gillian Moore MBE Director of Music, South Bank Centre
“So many of today’s rising artists are leading genre-fluid, autobiographical projects that are more personal to them: Drawing on their particular interests, cultural heritage and roots – rather than rigidly following any curriculum taught in school” Issie Barratt, NYJC’s Artistic Director
What is NYJC?
Hear the recordings of NYJC’s 2023 and 2024 young composers and songwriters here!
Examples of compositions by NYJC’s teaching artists performed by 2022’s summer school combos
Red Squirrel by Zoe Rahman
Riot Music by Soweto Kinch
Syncomania by Soweto Kinch
Tribal Warrior by Rowland Sutherland
Los Indianos by Tori Freestone
Jazz happens in real time – once”
Graham Collier OBE
Bassist, bandleader, composer, and founder of Royal Academy of Music's jazz department
Sharing my creative ideas with other young musicians and hearing my ideas played live, rather than on my computer, totally transformed my way of creating music”
Composition Student 2
The Location
Benenden School in Kent
Benenden School, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 4AA
Benenden School is an independent boarding school for girls in Kent, England. It is located in the beautiful Hemsted Park at Benenden in the Kent countryside, between Cranbrook and Tenterden.
In 2022, Benenden opened a brand-new state-of-the-art Music School, which also includes the highly impressive state-of-the-art Centenary Hall (capacity 750) designed by the multi award-winning Guy Hollaway Architects and offering state-of-the-art acoustics, which give audiences a truly amazing performance experience.
The Music School also features a smaller Recital Hall, with capacity for an audience of around 150 people, offering a performance space in a more intimate environment, perfect for rehearsals and smaller performances such as the nightly jam sessions and tutors’ concert. The Music School also has 20 practice rooms, five additional ensemble classrooms, a beautiful chapel and IT suite.
The young composers and songwriters will be taught in Benenden’s IT suite and will each be allocated a breakout room that they can use to compose.