British Composer Awards 2016

The 2016 British Composer Awards were announced on Tuesday 6 December 2016 at a ceremony at the British Film Institute. The Stage Works category went to Tansy Davies's opera Between Worlds which was premiered by ENO (see Hilary's review on this blog). and the Orchestral category went to Rebecca Saunders for Alba her trumpet concerto, partly inspired by Samuel Beckett, whose UK premiere was given by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

It was nice to see Roderick Williams' Ave Verurm Corpus Re-Imagined winning the Choral category, we caught the work's premiere when Susie Digby conducted her new ensemble Ora (see my review). And Mark Bowden's Five Memos, which won the Solo or Duo category, recently popped up on NMC's disc lovely of Bowden's music, Sudden Light (see my review).

BBC Radio 3 will broadcast a programme dedicated to the ceremony on Hear and Now at 10pm on Saturday 10 December 2016.

Amateur or Young Performers: The Monster in the Maze by Jonathan Dove
Chamber Ensemble: Freezywater by Leo Chadburn
Choral: Ave Verum Corpus Re-Imagined by Roderick Williams
Community or Educational Project: Into the Light by John Webb
Contemporary Jazz Composition: Karembeu's Guide to the Complete Defensive Midfielder by Joe Cutler
Orchestral: Alba by Rebecca Saunders
Small Chamber: A Day at the Spa by Oliver Leith
Solo or Duo: Five Memos by Mark Bowden
Sonic Art: Sonorama by Claudia Molitor
Stage Works: Between Worlds by Tansy Davies
Wind Band or Brass Band: Just a Vibration by Shri Sriram