Two students from the New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī at Victoria University of Wellington have won the prestigious NZSO Todd Young Composer Awards 2025.

Rafael Hosking received the 2025 Todd Young Composer Award for Godwit/Kuaka!, while fellow NZSM student Nicholas Graham Brownlie earned the Orchestra Choice Award for Blind is the Gardener.

Estella Wallace and Lauren Doherty, also NZSM students, joined six other finalists in the 21st edition of the awards. Organisers announced the winners during a ceremony and concert for invited guests at Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre on 19 September.

Thanks to the generous support of The Todd Trust, the Awards have become an unparalleled opportunity for Aotearoa New Zealand’s emerging composers.

The other finalists included Wayne Gao, Georgina Palmers, Jamal Hassan Hussein, and Daniel Harris.

Composer mentor Ryan Youens guided the finalists through the creative process. (Ryan himself was a Todd finalist in 2005, 2006, and 2008.) The national orchestra, led by NZSO Principal Conductor-in-Residence Hamish McKeich, workshopped and performed each composition.

Organisers will hold the next Todd Young Composer Awards on 26–27 November 2026.