FOUR students recently returned from a music summer school in North Yorkshire after winning places on the first Sound Inventors residential. Jess Kitt, Simon Stevens, Sam Baxter and Beth Rose were all selected from across England to attend the week's course in which the students were exposed to working with professional composers and writing for professional musicians before having their work premiered and recorded. After completing levels one and two in Cornwall over the past year, the students gained four of seventeen places offered nationally, allowing for a very high standard and exceptionally good tuition. Sound Inventors is an initiative which promotes the composition of music by young people between the ages of 12 and 18 without the use of computer programmes. Therefore it's back to basics with pencil and paper and devising harmonies without hearing them. This year saw the students compose for a quintet, which included flute, oboe, vibraphone, viola and bassoon. With only four and a hlaf days to complete their pieces, it was not unusual to see the students working until 2.30am, and discussing where they should give the bassoon a solo over breakfast. However, despite all the hard work, the students had a fantastic time and the pieces produced were of a phenomenally high standard. Jess Kitt is continuing her interest in composition after being offered a place to study it at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Sam Baxter is preparing to study at the Royal Northern College of Music for a degree in performance on the oboe, whilst Beth Rose is leaving to study Literature at Lancaster University. Simon Stevens, who is taking his A Levels this year, is also applying to music colleges to study composition next year.