Lydia 'life's passion' wins her a prestigious international award
LOCAL Guernsey singer, composer and vocal coach Lydia Jane Pugh has been named the
grand prize winner of the 2025 Celebris Composition Competition with an original piece called Love Is Enough.
Ms Pugh, 38, has been involved in music all her life, learning to play the piano at four years old.
After entering an international competition based in America, she received news that she had won earlier this month.
‘It was lovely, a delightful surprise to find out I’d won,’ she said.
The Celebris ensemble is a choir in Michigan, America, which holds an annual emerging composition competition where entrants submit a piece for a mixed voice choir. The competition prize is becoming a prestigious award with a huge talent pool of entrants submitting their best work.
‘The choir is now performing the piece as part of the 2025 and 2026 season across America as Celebris is a travelling choir,’ said Ms Pugh.
Ms Pugh has previously entered international competitions and won the Young New Yorker’s Chorus competition for young composers in 2018.
Winning the Celebris competition has inspired her again and reignited her thoughts to put forward her work for awards.
‘I was delighted to win,’ she said.
‘I talk to people about manifesting things, and I have a list of things I want to achieve and one of those was win another international award.’
Ms Pugh is kept busy by her passion
‘I’m part of around eight music groups on island, including the Guernsey Street Festival and the Big Band Collective,’ said Ms Pugh.
‘I love expressing emotion and meaning through sound.’
For the past eight years she and a close friend have been working on a musical called Radio Silence, set during the island’s Occupation.
‘Music is my life’s passion, I feel like it’s what I’m here to do,’ said Ms Pugh.
