Ivors Composers Awards 2019 shortlists announced

Works by Harrison Birtwistle, Tansy Davies and James MacMillan feature in the list of year’s nominees

Published: October 29, 2019 at 1:32 pm

The Ivors Academy has announced the nominees for its 2019 Composer Awards. Among the 33 compositions nominated across 11 categories are a chamber opera by Tansy Davies and an oratorio commemorating the end of the First World War by James MacMillan.

Previously known as the British Composer Awards, this year the Academy have changed the name to the Ivors Composer Awards, linking them with the prestigious Ivors Awards for songwriting and screen composition. Like their popular music counterparts the successful composers will now receive the same iconic Ivor Novello trophies depicting Euterpe, the Ancient Greek muse of lyric poetry.

The Ivors Composers Awards honour the best of contemporary music written in the last year by UK-based composers.

A number of the nominated works were inspired by current affairs or historical events. John Pickard’s Mass in Troubled Times responds to the Syrian refugee crisis, setting to music the story of a fictional father and daughter taking to the sea to flee their war-torn country.

Held in association with BBC Radio 3, the awards ceremony will be presented by Kate Molleson and Tom Service on Wednesday 4 December at the British Museum.

‘We’re incredibly excited to honour a wide range of phenomenal talent,’ comments Crispin Hunt, chair of The Ivors Academy. ‘All of whom have demonstrated the highest quality of composition craft in their fields, engaging with and challenging the world around them.'

See below for the full shortlist of nominees:

SOLO OR DUO Instrumental or vocal music performed by one or two players or voices

  • Invisible Cities by Charlotte Bray
  • Keyboard Engine by Harrison Birtwistle
  • Partials by Barnaby Martin

SMALL CHAMBER Three to five instruments for one player or voice per part

  • Leafleoht by James Weeks
  • Meeting the Universe Halfway by Matthew Sergeant
  • String Quartet No.3 ‘Hana no hanataba’ by Julian Anderson

CHAMBER ENSEMBLE Six or more instruments or voices written for one player or voice per part, except works written specifically for the voice

  • Flute Concerto by Dai Fujikura
  • Mondrian by Gary Carpenter
  • Sapiens by Mark Bowden

JAZZ COMPOSITION FOR SMALL ENSEMBLE Up to eight instruments or voices that contain interactive improvisation as an essential element

  • Mother Medusae by Michael J McEvoy
  • Quadriga in 5 by Simon Thacker
  • There is a Crack in Everything by Alison Rayner

JAZZ COMPOSITION FOR LARGE ENSEMBLE Nine or more instruments or voices that contain interactive improvisation as an essential element

  • Jumping In by Laura Jurd
  • On Marsden Moor by Jonny Mansfield
  • This Much I Know Is True by Mark Lockheart

CHORAL A cappella or accompanies, except works for choir and orchestra

  • Mass in Troubled Times by John Pickard
  • O Virgo Prudentissima by James MacMillan
  • Pocket Universe by Geoff Hannan

ORCHESTRAL Including works for choir and orchestra

  • The Book of Miracles (Trombone Concerto) by Gavin Higgins
  • Uncoiling the River by Kenneth Hesketh
  • Woven Space by Helen Grime

STAGE WORKS

Works specifically written for the stage, including opera, dance and musical theatre

  • Cave by Tansy Davies
  • Harriet (‘Scenes in the life of Harriet Tubman’) by Hilda Paredes
  • Them by Charlotte Harding

SOUND ART

Installations, sculptural, electroacoustic and audience-interactive work or non-concert formats

  • Aeons: A Sound Walk for Newcastle by Martin Green
  • Aurora by James Hamilton
  • Regretfully Yours, Ongoing by Neil Luck

COMMUNITY OR EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

Works demonstrating a composer’s work in community engagement alongside compositional craft

  • All the Hills and Vales Along by James MacMillan
  • Convo by Charlotte Harding
  • Never Again by Emily Peasgood

AMATEUR OR YOUNG PERFORMERS

Works for voluntary, amateur or youth choirs, ensembles and orchestras

  • Agreed by Howard Moody
  • Ghost Songs by Gary Carpenter
  • The Salamander and the Moonraker by Edward Gregson
This website is owned and published by Our Media Ltd. www.ourmedia.co.uk
© Our Media 2024