Announcing the Winner of our 2025 Composing Competition

Poulíčková composed Lullaby spontaneously when her daughter was ill. ‘I was worried, so I sat down at the piano and expressed my feelings and emotions through the music’, she tells us. ‘My daughter (Daniela) liked it and was inspired to write a poem to it.’ (The poem, along with the score, appears inside the June-July issue of Pianist, out at the end of May.)

A business woman by trade, Poulíčková says she enjoys composing for the piano because of its wide tonal range. ‘It allows you to convey a wide range of emotions and musical nuances, so it's a great instrument for composition,’ she says. ‘I have been taking private piano lessons throughout my life, and have met very interesting teachers and pianists on the way, which has led me to composition. I don't force myself to create; inspiration comes unexpectedly, as a response to certain events when I am trying to express something I don't have words for, or from reading a work of literature. Sometimes I compose in silence when I hear a melody in my head before putting it on paper. At other times, I need my hands on the piano to be able to improvise and try out harmonies.

Poulíčková says that it’s important to allow a piece to mature: ‘I feel that when I return to it after some time, my inner voice usually guides me further. I know a piece is completed when I can remember it from the beginning until the end and I know for sure I wouldn’t have written it in a different way.’

In the key of E flat major, Lullaby is perfect for the intermediate-level pianist. ‘It creates a very haunting atmosphere and is very approachable and pianistic,’ says judge Nigel Scaife. ‘With a good structure and some lovely scrunchy chords, it’s a great piece for developing balance between the hands and singing legato melodies. Also, you have to listen very carefully with the pedalling – it needs a lot of control. Although it’s mostly in 3/4, there are a couple of places towards the end where it changes to 4/4, which creates interest. And there are some harmonic surprises, so it’s not predictable; however, it’s a very unified piece and has coherence.’

The competition’s two runners-ups were Gavin Littaur with Hebrew Lament and Brianna Ellingham with Oporae: Misty Brow. Says Matthew Ash: ‘The writing for Hebrew Lament really fits with the title. And the notes fall under the hands nicely. There are a couple of good shifts in the bass and I enjoyed the clever use of fermatas’. Of Oporae: Misty Brow, Scaife remarks: ‘It’s a colourful, Debussyesque piece with interesting Impressionist sonorities. It’s one of those pieces where you can really take your time. It uses a wide range of the piano, which is a good point – so it’s imaginative in that sense. It’s very much a ‘misty’ piece; you can really visualise the mountains surrounded by mist.’

Poulíčková receives a white Kawai ES520 piano. ‘Kawai pianos have got a very good sound and I love them. I've got one in Prague, so it will be nice to have one in London as well.’ Winning the competition has given her the inspiration to carry on composing. ‘I am currently working on Fountain of Joy, a piece which I started as soon as I found out I had won! I was excited and it is a very happy piece.’

Lullaby will be published in Pianist 144. Thanks to over 90 entrants to the competition. Watch this space for the launch of the 2026 Composing Competition!