New carol from Cambridge-based composer makes BBC Radio 3 Christmas Carol Competition shortlist

A Christmas carol by Northstowe-based amateur composer Andrew Collier has made the shortlist for the next stage of the annual BBC Radio 3 Christmas Carol Competition.

The competition was launched in September, with a call-out for amateur composers in two categories – 11-15 and 16-plus – to send tunes or melodies to new lyrics by Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage.

The submitted entries have been listened to by a judging panel, which includes well-known figures such as Clive Myrie, Blue Peter presenter, Mwaksy Mudenda, Daniel Hyde, director of music at King’s College, Cambridge, and Beverley McGeown, who runs the Open Arts Community Choir in Northern Ireland.

Chairing this year’s panel is Abimbola Amoako-Gyampah from the Coronation Gospel Choir, who performed at the Coronation of King Charles III.

There are eight shortlisted finalists – four in each category – and Andrew Collier’s piece is listed among the carols in the 16-plus category.

It is not the first time the graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge, has entered. He notes that he has submitted a piece “every year but one” since 2016, but this is the first time that he’s made it this far.

Andrew, a software engineer who is originally from Bolton, describes making the shortlist this time around as making him “kind of giddy, in a sense”, adding: “It’s been quite a surreal experience – it was not something that I expected at all.”

Describing the process, Andrew, who also plays bass guitar and often leads the music group at his church, continues: “What we initially send is just a melody, and then I had been in contact with an arranger, Iain Farrington.

“I had been thinking of some of the harmonies, the chords that go around it, and some things to do with the way that it might be set.

“So I sent him all of my notes, he sent back a completed choral version and his piano parts – he plays piano on the recording as well.

“We worked a little bit to-and-fro with some of the fine details; basically I had had this idea of a sort of fairly upbeat, jazz-influenced… a fairly strong idea of the kind of music that I wanted to produce, and I think that was reflected in the tune that came out.

“But he’s taken it up another level; I’m very happy with what he’s done, I think he’s really understood the kind of feel that I was going for.”

Andrew adds that there are some “very strong tunes” on the shortlist and that he’s “interested to see what the voters decide”.

Voting closes at 6pm tomorrow (Wednesday, December 20) and the winner will be announced tomorrow on the Radio 3 Breakfast Show, which is on air from 6.30-9am.

Go to bbc.co.uk/carolcompetition to listen to all the carols, to cast your vote before and find a privacy notice and full terms and conditions.