TWO aspiring Ipswich musicians, Nicholas Freestone and Melissa Stockton, are among 20 winners who will have their “grooves” recorded by the Philharmonia Orchestra next week.

TWO aspiring Ipswich musicians, Nicholas Freestone and Melissa Stockton, are among 20 winners who will have their “grooves” recorded by the Philharmonia Orchestra next week.

Nicholas, 15, and Melissa, 11, were among the chosen ones for the Groove Search competition, run by the orchestra and BT, which used the MySpace website to search for new musical talent.

The contest invited members of the public, whether amateur musicians or musical novices, to submit 30 seconds of original music in any genre to the Orchestra.

Entries could be written down, played on an instrument, whistled or even hummed.

Melissa, a harpist and pianist, won with her composition 'The Skiier'.

She said: “'I like winning. This has given me great confidence in writing my own music”.

Nicholas, a pupil at Ipswich School, made it to the final with his composition 'Scherzo in 9'.

He said: “My “Scherzo in 9” groove is adapted from ideas first used in a “Rondo for Organ” which I composed in October for my GCSE Music. Each term I do a couple of arrangements for the 40-piece St John's Primary School orchestra, but it will be an amazing experience to hear one of my compositions being played by professional musicians”.

The competition, a partnership between BT and The Philharmonia, was judged by a panel that included urban artist Nate James and Mercury Music Prize nominee jazz pianist Zoe Rahman.

Entries were received from four continents and winners from North America and Australasia will be travelling to Abbey Road, London for the recording session on January 19.

They range from two eight-year-old girls from Suffolk, who wrote their “groove” after reading a children's book called Qpootle5, to the writer for a Leicester based group called ButterflyPolite who perform “slightly left of centre pop”.