A student from The Purcell School of Music in Bushey has beaten stiff competition across the country to win this year's Royal Opera House contest.

William Gough, 14, is one of ten young composers aged between 11 to 16 to have won the competition.

This is the third year in a row that a student from The Purcell School has been selected as one of the ten finalists.

Schoolchildren were asked to compose an original 30 second fanfare and the winning compositions have been selected by a panel of Royal Opera House professionals including Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera, Barry Wordsworth, music director of the Royal Ballet, Dominique Le Gendre, associate composer of the Royal Opera House and composer Duncan Chapman.

William and the nine other young composers will join the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, conducted by Mr Pappano on Saturday, May 19, to record the fanfares.

These will then be played for every mainstage performance in the Royal Opera House ‘front of house’ areas from June. The fanfares replace the traditional hand rung bell signalling the time for audiences to take or re-take their seats in the auditorium.

Mr Pappano, who has championed the competition, said: "People should be given the opportunity to experience classical music when they are young and my involvement with the fanfare competition has to do with getting young people to compose and seeing what happens".

The other finalists are: Bertie Baigent, 16, The Cherwell School, Oxford; Joseph Beesley, 14, Eltham College, London; Molly Conrad, 14, New Hall School, Essex; Dafydd Davies, 11, Ysgol Bryngwyn School, Carmarthenshire; Diego Perez Alvarez, 15, St Mary’s College, Hull; Kethaki Prathivadi, 13, North Halifax Grammar School, Halifax; Junaid Reham, 14, High Storrs School, Sheffield; Francis Wignall, 13, Oakham School, Rutland and Alex Woolf,16, Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge.

The winners will take part in orchestration workshops this month with composer Duncan Chapman and attend the recording of their fanfare by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in May. The composers will be credited in performance programmes and invited to attend a performance at the Royal Opera House to hear the premiere of their fanfare as it is broadcast to the front of house areas in June.

The online competition, now in its third year, is designed to encourage young people to experiment creatively with music. The ten winning fanfares can be heard at www.roh.org.uk/fanfare.