This year’s BBC Proms presents a special Youth focus, with many of the UK’s leading youth orchestras and choirs appearing during the season. Proms director Roger Wright is keen to point out, however, that youth and the Proms have a long and fruitful association – summed up perfectly in the BBC Proms Young Composers' Competition.

The culmination of the annual Inspire scheme, the Competition this year celebrates its 14th season and has received hundreds of entries from 12 to 18-year-olds. Three winning compositions have been selected by a judging panel whose members include composers Stuart MacRae, Anna Meredith and Nico Muhly – Three Apparitions by Freddy Meyers and Mermish by Alex Woolf, each in the 12 to 16 category, and Portrait of a Moor by Sarah Gait in the 17 to 18 category.

The winning entries will each be performed by the Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon, at the Royal College of Music on August 4, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on August 16. Each composer also receives a BBC commission.

The Inspire scheme also hosted free Composer Labs throughout the UK between February and April giving over 100 budding composers the opportunity to work with BBC musicians.