Twenty Years of Celebrating Composing Excellence

Twenty Years of Celebrating Composing Excellence

Photos: Mark Allan & David Fisher The Ivors Academy (then known as BASCA) set up the British Composer Awards in 2003 with the support of PRS for Music and BBC Radio 3. The aim was to celebrate the work of classical composers living and working in the UK. To raise their profile and promote the importance of commissioning of new music.

The first ever British Composer Awards took place on Thursday 18th December 2003 at the Barbican in London. The ceremony was hosted by BBC Radio 3’s Verity Sharp and Sean Rafferty and the awards were presented by Sir Andrew Davis.

Eleven awards were presented. Winners included the late Anthony Payne’s 2002 BBC Proms commission Visions and Journeys and 22-year-old Helen Grime’s Oboe Concerto, which she had performed the previous year with the Meadows Chamber Orchestra of Edinburgh.

Over the past 20 years, more than 700 works by over 350 composers have been nominated, and over 230 awards have been presented.

Prolific winners include the late Sir Harrison Birtwistle (the most awarded composer with eight gongs), Julian Anderson, Rebecca Saunders and Judith Bingham.

Double award winners in any one year include Michael Finnissy, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Kerry Andrew.

Clockwise from top right: Stage Works recipient Julian Anderson with Jessica Cottis in 2015; Kerry Andrew’s double win in 2014 for Community or Educational Project and Stage Works; Rebecca Saunders and Nigel Osborne in 2017

Contemporary Jazz Composition recipient Jason Yarde in 2009 Harrison Birtwistle with Gareth Moorcraft in 2012 The first Jazz award was presented in 2009, won by Jason Yarde for the BBC Proms commission Rhythm and Other Fascinations.

Gareth Moorcraft won our inaugural Student Competition in 2012 aged just 21 then returned to the awards eight years later to win an Ivor for Diaries of the Early Worm commissioned for recorder player, Tabea Debus.

Celebration

Twenty Years of Celebrating Composing Excellence In 2016 we introduced awards that celebrate a composer for their outstanding contributions to new music.

We’ve been honoured to recognise the innovative brilliance of Jennifer Walshe, Shiva Feshareki, Sarah Angliss, Anna Meredith and sonic pioneer Trevor Wishart; as well as the compositional craft of Alexander Goehr, Sally Beamish, Nigel Osborne, Erika Fox, Cecilia McDowall and the late Simon Bainbridge. We’ve also recognised some exceptional jazz voices in Zoe Rahman, Cleveland Watkiss and Yazz Ahmed.

Clockwise from top right: Innovation recipient Cleveland Watkiss with Julian Joseph in 2021; Innovation recipient Anna Meredith with Sara Mohr-Pietsch in 2019; Impact recipient Zoe Rahman 2021; Jennifer Walshe, Leo Chadburn, Laurence Crane and Brian Irvine in 2016

In 2019, alongside the Academy’s rebrand, the British Composer Awards became The Ivors Composer Awards. This change brought the Academy’s celebration of classical, jazz and sound art into its annual presentation of Ivor Novello Awards.

The Ivor Novello Award statuette is a representation of Euterpe, the Greek muse of music and lyric poetry. It was designed by Hazel Underwood, an undergraduate of St Martin’s School of Art in London, in 1955. To this day it is still cast in solid bronze and weighs just over 7lbs.

Clockwise from top right: Michael Nyman in 2007; Simon Dobson in 2018; Emily Howard and Daniel Kidane in 2016; Chamber Ensemble winner Dai Fujikura in 2019; Errollyn Wallen with Jude Kelly in 2006 Celebration