Whatever your musical style, Sibelius 5 makes writing scores easier than ever - giving you more time to focus on the music. Stunning new features like Panorama mean you don’t need to think about pages while you’re composing or arranging. Ideas Hub lets you instantly capture your musical ideas and then find them again in a second. And new, high-quality, built-in sounds play back your scores with astounding realism

Sibelius National Young Film Composer Competition 2007

Both the judges and the people at Sibelius have been amazed at the outstanding quality of all the entries. If you submitted an entry, well done!

Winners each received a copy of Sibelius 5 – the brand new version of the best-selling music notation software – a cheque for £500 and a day in Abbey Road recording studio with film composer and competition judge Michael Price, who has worked on scores for many blockbusters including the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In addition, Michael will hold a special music class at the winners’ schools, and Sibelius will donate a multi-user license of Sibelius 5 to the schools' music labs.

Prizes were awarded at the Sibelius 5 launch event at London's Royal Academy of Music on July 15th.

16-and-under age category

Winner: William Church from Shenfield High School in Brentwood, Essex

Runners-up (each receives a copy of Sibelius Student):

• Andrew Fender from Crofton School in Lewisham, London
• Gidon Fineman from Leckford Place School in Oxford
• Sam North from Marple Hall School in Stockport
• Milo Chen from Colstons School in Bristol
• Philip Bennetts from Cleeve School in Cheltenham
• Isis Wolflight from Sidcot School in Winscombe, North Somerset

18-and-under age category

Winner: Luke Richards from Tunbridge Wells in Kent

Runners-up (each receives a copy of Sibelius Student):

• Adam Violaris from Alexandra Park School in London
• Grace Newcombe from The Godolphin School in Salisbury
• Jack Matthias from Royal Grammar School in Guildford
• Stephanie Singer from The Abbey School in Reading
• Zachary Patterson from Canons High School in Edgware, London

If you're a winner or a runner-up, congratulations. If not, try again next year if you can! If you're a music teacher, Sibelius will be contacting you during the coming months to tell you how you can register students for next year's competition.

Due to the success of this competition – over 500 students registered to take part – Sibelius now intend to hold the competition every year.

Other Sibelius news:

• Book now for Sibelius courses at Canford Summer School of Music, 12-19 August - Whether you're an experienced user or just starting out with Sibelius, Canford courses help you get the most from the program. Held in Sherborne School in the beautiful Dorset countryside, Canford runs two courses: one for beginners and one for experienced users. Both are hosted by Paul Patterson, Manson Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, and feature a guest session by Sibelius co-founder Ben Finn. Contact Canford for info and booking

• New education features in Sibelius 5 - Sibelius 5 breaks new ground for music education software by providing more ready-to-use musical ideas, worksheets, sounds and timesaving tools for all styles of music. Over 2000 professionally-written snippets of music help introduce students to notation using the music they love. And that’s just the beginning. There are plenty more ways Sibelius 5 will help in your teaching. Read more

• OBEs for Sibelius founders - Sibelius founders and musicians Ben and Jonathan Finn have been awarded the OBE (Officer of the British Empire) by Her Majesty the Queen for services to Software Technology. The honours offer the most prestigious recognition to date for the twin brothers, who founded Sibelius Software in 1993 with just £3000 and have since established the company as the world’s market leader in music notation software, revolutionising how music is written and taught around the world. Read more

Events

Come and see Sibelius at these events!

SAME Conference 2007 Thu 6th Sep. Stirling University. Event website

NAME National Conference 2007 Fri 14th Sep. Royal Holloway College, University of London, Egham, Surrey. Event website

SETT 2007, The Scottish Learning Festival 2007 Wed 19th Sep. SECC, Glasgow - Hall 5. Event website

Capital Education Fri 28th Sep. The National Hall, Olympia, London. Event website