British Composer Awards celebrates 10 years

This year's British Composer Awards will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Goldsmith's Hall on Monday 3 December. Amazingly the awards are 10 years old. When they were first set up by the British Academy of Songwriters and Composers you wondered why no-one had thought of it earlier, and now it has become a brilliant part of the musical year. This year, to celebrate the 10th anniversary, there is also a concert on Wednesday 5th December at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank. This will feature 11 compositions from previous awards, performed by Endymion and the Vasari Singers.


Clearly it would not be possible to feature all the award winners from the past 10 years! The programme on Wednesday concentrates on choral and chamber works. The earliest will be Gabriel Jackson's lovely O Doctor Optime which won the 2003 Liturgical Award. The most recent work will be Anthony Payne's String Quartet No. 2 which was the Chamber music winner last year.

The full list of works is as follows:-

Judith Bingham - Fantasia (2008 - instrumental solo/duo)
Gabriel Jackson - O Doctor Optime (2003 - liturgical)
Sir John Tavener  - Ex Maria Virgine (2009 - liturgical)
James MacMillan  - The Canticle of Zachariah and Data est mihi omnis potestas (2008 - liturgical)
Sir Harrison Birtwistle - Crowd (2007 - instrumental solo/duo)
Anthony Payne - String Quartet No.2 (2011 - chamber)
Ruth Byrchmore - A Birthday (2005 - liturgical)
Michael Zev Gordon  - This Night (2008 - choral)
Tarik - O'Regan Threshold of Night (2007 - liturgical)
Gary Carpenter - Azaleas (2006 - chamber)
Joe Cutler Folk Music (2008 - chamber)

Performers are Endymion , Philip Venables, director, and the Vasari Singers, Jeremy Backhouse, conductor. Further information about the concert from the South Bank Centre website.

Further information about the awards themselves from the awards website.

 Elsewhere on this blog:

• Well meaning confusion - creating today's Carmen
• L'Incoronazione di Poppea at the Royal College of Music
• Merton College Choir - Choral at Cadogan
• Don Quichotte at Chelsea Opera Group
• Passion and discipline - Russion Virtuosi of Europe at Cadogan Hall
• Creating socially responsible individuals as well as musicians - In Harmony Sistema England
• The Natural History of the Piano
• CD Review - Coro Allegro - In Paradisum
• Home