The Ivors Academy has announced the nominations for this year's Ivors Composer Awards, celebrating the best new works in classical music, jazz and sound art.
All the nominated works were premiered between April 2020 and March 2021. Inevitably, the theme of lockdown is prominent in many of the works in this year's line-up, including Nikki Iles's The Caged Bird, Tansy Davies’s Nightingales: Ultra-Deep Field, Caroline Kraabel’s London 26 and 28 March 2020: Imitation: Inversion, Thomas Adès’s Gyökér (Root) and Howard Goodall’s Never to Forget.
As the world was returning to ancient stories to find meaning in chaos, many of this year's nominated composers turning to mythology for inspiration.
Nature is often a popular topic for composers to use as the basis of their work, and this year proved no different. With more of us spending time in the countryside than ever before, the natural world was represented in works such as Lynne Plowman's A Field Guide to Pebbles, Nikki Sheth's Nocturnal Insights and Ed Hughes's The Cuckmere Soundwalk.
30 works have been nominated across six categories in this year's Ivors Composer Awards. Nearly half of the composers in the running are first-time nominees, including the Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir and British composer and trombonist Alex Paxton (above), who has three works nominated.
Nominations were judged blindly, with the names of each composer removed from all materials given to the judges.
The winners of this year's Ivor Novello Awards will be revealed at a ceremony at the British Museum, presented by BBC Radio 3's Sarah Mohr-Pietsch and Tom Service. The show will be subsequently broadcast on Radio 3 as part of a special edition of the New Music Show on 11 December.
The full list of nominees:
JAZZ COMPOSITION
BYE by ALEX PAXTON for small jazz ensemble and improviser
CORNCRACK DREAMS by ALEX PAXTON for trombone, keyboard and drums
DREAMS by BRIGITTE BERAHA and DAVE MANINGTON for jazz sextet
THE CAGED BIRD by NIKKI ILES for jazz band
THE RISE OF THE LIZARD PEOPLE by IVO NEAME for jazz orchestra
LARGE SCALE COMPOSITION
CATAMORPHOSIS by ANNA THORVALDSDOTTIR for orchestra
DEMOCRACY DANCES by CONOR MITCHELL for symphony orchestra
KAAMOS by LARA POE for orchestra
PHARMAKEIA by JAMES DILLON for 16 players
THIS DEPARTING LANDSCAPE by MARTIN SUCKLING for orchestra
SMALL CHAMBER COMPOSITION
A FIELD GUIDE TO PEBBLES by LYNNE PLOWMAN for percussion duo
NIGHTINGALES: ULTRA-DEEP FIELD by TANSY DAVIES for string quartet
SOMETIMES VOICES by ALEX PAXTON for keyboard and drums
STILL LIFE by STEPHEN GOSS for cello and guitar
WICKED PROBLEMS by LAURA BOWLER for voice, bass flute and fixed tape part
SOLO COMPOSITION
‘ECHO THE ANGELUS’ by JAMES DILLON for piano
FADING SPELLSPHERE by BEN GAUNT for piano
LAMPADES by MARTIN IDDON for tuba and fixed media
LINEAR CONSTRUCTION (NO. 5) by ALEX GROVES for cello
NO ONE by ROBIN HAIGH for harp
SOUND ART
FIRE PREVENTION OR HOW TO SING A LABYRINTH OR THE REBEING AND THE BURNING OF THE LABYRINTH by NWANDO EBIZIE for piano, voice and electronics with field recordings
LONDON 26 AND 28 MARCH 2020: IMITATION: INVERSION by CAROLINE KRAABEL for baritone, alto and sopranino saxophones and double bass
NOCTURNAL INSIGHTS by NIKKI SHETH for field recordings of crepuscular and nocturnal wildlife in the UK
THE CUCKMERE SOUNDWALK by ED HUGHES for chamber orchestra
WAVES OF RESISTANCE (RADIO ART WITHOUT BORDERS) TONNTA FRIOTAÍOCHTA (EALAÍNE RAIDIÓ GAN TEORAINNEACHA) by MAGZ HALL radiophonic poem, WASP synth and location recordings from the Irish Sea and Canterbury Garden
VOCAL OR CHORAL COMPOSITION
BARUCH – TEN PROPOSITIONS OF BARUCH SPINOZA FOR TENOR AND PIANO by MICHAEL ZEV GORDON for tenor and piano
GYÖKÉR (ROOT) by THOMAS ADÈS for mezzo-soprano and four percussionists
NEVER TO FORGET by HOWARD GOODALL for SATB choir and small orchestra
THINKING I HEAR THEE CALL by CHERYL FRANCES-HOAD for soprano, speaker and electronics
VIDI AQUAM by JAMES MACMILLAN for 40 a cappella voices, split into 8 SSATB choirs
