We are pleased to announce our 2025 composition winner is “Crossing Over” by Chris O’Hara.

Chris O’Hara is currently a music teacher at Whalley Range Girls’ High School in Manchester, UK, and has experience as a singer, choral director, and composer. His compositions include works for children, SATB choirs, and orchestras.

His composition “We Dare to Dream” was chosen as the theme song for the 2013 Hong Kong International Youth and Children’s Choir Festival. In 2014, he was a finalist in the first Jean Sibelius International Composition Competition. In 2015, he was awarded the Pullen Memorial Choral Composition Prize (Pullen Church, Raleigh, NC) for his piece “Commonwealth of Love.”

In November 2018, the Manchester Chorale premiered his composition “Scars Upon Their Hearts,” a setting of poems written by women poets of World War I. In 2022, he was awarded second prize in the Japan ICC Competition for his SATB a cappella composition “Jubilate,” which was subsequently performed by the Brigham Young University Singers at the Tolosa Choral Festival in Spain and included on their album “Inexpressible Wonder.”

His composition “Crossing Over” is a setting of the lyrics for the hymn “Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer,” written in 1762 by the renowned Welsh hymn writer and poet William Williams Pantycelyn. The words are traditionally sung to the tune “Cwm Rhondda,” composed by Welsh musician John Hughes in 1905, and are energetically performed by supporters of the Welsh Rugby Union team.

In this arrangement, he sets the hymn in a light gospel style that builds in playful energy and intensity, leading to a dramatic third verse, where the chorus sings the lyrics “Death of death and hell’s destruction.” His intention is to give the words a universal feel, as they speak powerfully of life’s journey—its hopes, uncertainties, and anxieties that all people share. After the liberating and joyful final chorus (“Songs of praises I will ever give to Thee!”), the piece concludes in quiet, peaceful reflection.