A memorable & touching portrait of an oft-misunderstood composer: words & music by Gustav Holst at the London Song Festival

Gustav Holst by Herbert Lambert, bromide print, 1921
NPG P109 © National Portrait Gallery, London

The songs of Gustav Holst: Katie Bray, Ruairi Bowen, Nigel Foster; London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist Church
Reviewed 29 November 2024

A portrait of Gustav Holst in words and music, interleaving his varied, fascinating and sometimes experimental songs with the his own words to create a vivid picture

The London Song Festival continued its exploration of the Class of 1874 at Hinde Street Methodist Church on Friday 29 November 2024 when the festival's artistic director, pianist Nigel Foster, was joined by mezzo-soprano Katie Bray, tenor Ruairi Bowen and speaker Martin Handley for a programme exploring Gustav Holst's life and songs. 25 of the composer's songs were interleaved with readings by Martin Handley, drawing on Holst's letter and lecture notes, and Imogen Holst's biography of her Father.

Holst was a fascinating and intriguing man, with strong views of the importance of music in society, and his own words were frequently punchy and trenchant, yet engaging. His description of one of his early Thaxted Festivals with the music making seeming to explode around the town for 14 hours a day, often spontaneously, demonstrated the way he was able to inspire those he taught to go beyond themselves. One of the memorable quotes from his own words 'Music has the power to bring people together'.

There was an experimental edge to some of his later music, and he was constantly questing, rarely writing the same thing twice. He does not seem to have had a 'habit of songs' in the way that his friend and Ralph Vaughan Williams had. Though the voice was important to Holst, there is a space of nearly 20 years when Holst virtually stopped writing for voice and piano at all; there is little major between his Hymns from the Rig Veda of 1908 and the Humbert Wolfe settings of 1929, though there are a group of songs for soprano or tenor and violin. 

Music for Holst was a serious business, and he never put humour in it, nor was he interested in sentimentality. Few of the songs we heard had the sort of emotional intensity that we get from his finest orchestral music.

An evening of compelling and involving theatre: Britten, Weill and Ravel triple bill at the Royal College of Music

Ravel: L'heure espagnole - Alexandria Moon, Edward Birchinall, Benedict Munden, Marcus Swietlicki (part) - Royal College of Music (Photo: Chris Christodoulou)

Britten: Les illuminations, Weill: Chansons des Quais; Ravel: L'heure espagnole; Georgia Melville, Cecilia Zhang, Alexandria Moon, Marcus Swietlicki, Benedict Munden, Sam Hird, Edward Birchinall, director: Ella Marchment, conductor: Michael Rosewell, Royal College of Music Opera Studio; Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music
Reviewed 27 November 2024

Three contrasting French texted pieces, drawn together in an evening of vibrant, thought-provoking performances which very much created an evening about the female gaze

The latest opera offering from the Royal College of Music is a triple bill presented by their Opera Studio which, in some ways, could be seen as an intriguingly imaginative answer to the question 'what do you programme with Ravel's L'heure espagnole?'. Director Ella Marchment has put together a triple bill of French-texted works, adding two works that are not strictly operatic and are not by French composers, Britten's Les illuminations and Chansons des Quais, a 2017 sequence of Kurt Weill's music created out of his incidental music for Jacques Deval's play, Marie Galante, originally written in 1934.

The evening was largely double cast, and we caught the performance on 27 November 2024 at the Britten Theatre, when the Royal College of Music Opera Studio presented Britten's Les illuminations with soprano Georgia Melville, Weill's Chansons des Quais with Cecilia Zhang, and Ravel's L'heure espagnole with Alexandria Moon as Concepcion, plus Marcus Swietlicki, Benedict Munden, Sam Hird and Edward Birchinall. Michael Rosewell conducted, Ella Marchment directed with designs by Cordelia Chisholm. Adam Haigh was the movement director and assistant director for Chansons de Quais.

Britten: Les illuminations - Georgia Melville - Royal College of Music (Photo: Chris Christodoulou)

Celebrating Reimann's Lear plus Janáček's Jenůfa, Cherubini's Medea: operatic highlights in Prague

Reimann: Lear
Dietrich Fischer Dieskau in the title role
in Munich

German composer Aribert Reimann died in March 2024 at the age of 88, leaving behind an amazing legacy including ten operas including Die Vogelscheuchen with a libretto by Günter Grass, the Kafka-based Das Schloß and of course Lear. Premiered in 1978, Lear was written at the suggestion of baritone Dietrich Fischer Dieskau who performed the work in Munich. 

Prague's 2024/25 opera season ends with a new production of Reimann's Lear in June 2025 at the State Opera. Not only is this the first production of the opera since Reimann's death, but it coincides with the centenary of Dietrich Fischer Dieskau who was born in May 1925. The new production of Lear is directed by Barbora Horáková Joly, who directed Verdi's Luisa Miller at English National Opera in 2020 [see my review], and whose production of Verdi's Un giorno di regno we caught in Heidenheim in 2017 [see my review]. The musical director for Lear is Hermann Bäumer with Tómas Tómasson in the title role.

Another highlight of the Prague opera season next year will be a new production of Janáček's Jenůfa at the National Theatre directed by Calixto Bieito who directed acclaimed production of Janáček’s Katya Kabanova at the National Theatre. Conducted by Norway’s Stefan Veselka, the production features Alžběta Poláčková as Jenůfa, Dana Burešová as Kostelnička Buryjovka, Aleš Briscein as Laca Klemeň and Martin Šrejma as Števa Buryja.

Also of interest and perhaps worth a weekend away, in January 2025, a new production Cherubini's Medea (in the Italian version) opens at the Estates Theatre, directed by Roland Schwab, conducted by Robert Jindra with Svetlana Aksenova and Evan LeRoy Johnson [whom we caught as Don Jose in Glyndebourne's new production of Bizet's Carmen at the BBC Proms, see my review].

Full details from the National Theatre's website.

Christmas with George Frideric and Jimi: the Handel Hendrix House celebrates the season

Handel Hendrix House (Photo: Christopher Ison)

We don't know how George Frideric Handel celebrated Christmas, but certainly Queen Charlotte brought the idea of the Christmas tree to England when she married King George III in 1761, decorated yew branches being traditional in her native Mecklenurg-Strelitz, and by 1800 she had set up a Christmas tree in Queen’s Lodge, Windsor.

So, we can perhaps forgive Handel Hendrix House for celebrating the season with a Christmas tree and much else besides. From now until 22 December 2024, the house is in decorated festival mode with both Handel’s 18th-century rooms and Hendrix’s 1960s flat, bedecked with decorations. There is live music on Fridays and Saturdays, with late openings on Thursdays Late featuring mulled cider or mulled apple juice and plus the Meyer Dancers offering lessons in go-go dancing in Jimi’s bedroom!

More immediately of interest perhaps is an immersive display about the composition of Handel’s Messiah, which was written in the house (in 1741), and Handel's newly restored kitchen will be laid out for a feast.

Full details from the Handel Hendrix House website.

From Don Juan to Persia and beyond: Emily Hazrati appointed Associate Composer at Oxford International Song Festival

Emily Hazrati (Photo: May Chi)

Oxford International Song Festival has announced that Emily Hazrati will be the Associate Composer for 2024/26, following on from previous Associate Composers, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Alex Ho. 

At this year's festival soprano Ella Taylor and pianist Jocelyn Freeman gave the premiere of two of Hazrati's songs inspired by Byron's Don Juan with texts by Joseph Spence [see my review of Taylor and Freeman's performance of two more of Hazrati and Spence's Don Juan songs at Song Easel].

Established in 2019, the Associate Composer scheme is a multi-year role involving three commissions, increasing in scope each year, and showcasing the composer's other work at the Festival

In 2025, Hazrati will create a new song-cycle in collaboration with writer Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh inspired by stories and characters from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (Book of Kings), the national epic of ancient Persia. And a large-scale work will follow in 2026.

Oxford International Song Festival 2025 will take place 10 – 25 October 2025, full details from the festival website.

Sight and sound: Holst's The Planets superbly reimagined for the Father Willis organ at Salisbury Cathedral by John Challenger with a mesmerising film

The organ in Salisbury Cathedral was originally built in 1876-77 by Henry Willis ("Father" Willis), conservatively rebuilt by Henry Willis III in 1934 so that no tonal alterations were made and no pipes removed, the organ has been sensitively looked after since then and as a result, aside from small changes of layout, mechanics and specification, the organ remains as Willis left it in 1877. The tonal scheme has remained unaltered, with the majority of the pipework and soundboards dating from 1876. The instrument retains its historic pitch, and the majority of pipework remains cone-tuned, unique for a cathedral organ in England.

John Challenger at Salisbury Cathedral (Photo: Ben Tomlin)

As such, the organ gives us a glimpse of the sound world of the later 19th century English organ tradition which was moving the instrument toward symphonic dimensions. Transcriptions were popular; producing organ versions of the symphonic repertoire is something whose popularity has waxed and waned. On a new recording from Salisbury Cathedral, assistant director of music John Challenger demonstrates that the transcription is alive an well, with a version of Holst's The Planets created for and played on the Father Willis organ.

What makes the project just that little bit special is that the performance is accompanied by a superb film, by Ben Tomlin, which mixes footage of Challenger playing with hypnotic images of the cathedral at night. The film is available online, a terrifically generous gesture. If you do watch the film on YouTube, be sure to visit the cathedral's donation page too.

Challenger's transcription works because he does not try to make the 19th century Willis organ sound like Holst's large orchestra. Who could. Instead he reinvents Holst's brilliant orchestrations in organ terms and the result has its share of bravura moments as hands and feet rattle around the consoles and pedalboard, but has plenty of sonic magic. The transcription inevitably lacks some of the fleet dazzle, the ability to turn on the head of a pin, that characterises Holst's orchestra but instead there is a brooding majesty, and a philosophical profoundness to the music, with Challenger and the organ bringing out the essential melancholy and vein of darkness that there is in much of Holst's music.

It helps that this is accompanied by images of the cathedral which are anything but simple picturesque views, and which help deepen our perceptions.

Melodies without Borders: two Turkish musicians mixing lyric melancholy with 19th century bravura

Ferec Necef at St Nicholas Church, Chiswick

Melodies without Borders: Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Faure, Weber, Dvorak, Sarasate, Rachmaninoff, Popper; Ferec Necef, Rasim Yagiz Ilhan; St Nicholas Church, Chiswick
15 November 2024

Two Turkish musicians come together for a wide-ranging recital of music for cello and piano with a bit of 19th-century flair

Cellist Ferec Necef was born in Turkey to a musical family who had immigrated from Baku in Azerbaijan. His training has included study in his native Turkey along with Goldsmiths College, and his experience includes performing with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, and more recently in London with Brent Opera and London City Orchestra, with this latter group he took part in the concert in London to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye. 

With London-based Turkish pianist Rasim Yagiz Ilhan, Ferec Necef gave a lunchtime recital at St Nicholas Church in Chiswick on 15 November 2024. Beyond the well-known concert halls, there is a wide network of admirable smaller venues, often run by volunteers, which provide a wide net of performances that enable up and coming artists to make themselves known.

For this recital, Necef put together a programme of familiar and less familiar items by Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Faure, Weber, Sarasate, Rachmininoff and Popper, mixing transcriptions with original items. There was quite a tradition, 19th-century feel to the programme yet also a willingness to show the cello as an instrument going beyond the usual.

Community, creativity, the power of music and the importance of brass banding: Martin Green's play KELI debuts in 2025

Martin Green at the National Mining Museum Scotland, in Newtongrange (Photo: Sandy Butler)

Marking 40 years since the miners' strikes and featuring a sharp, hilarious script and live brass score by Ivor Novello winner Martin Green, KELI is a gripping show about community, creativity, the power of music and the importance of brass banding. 

In 2022, having immersed himself in the world of the brass band, the communities, the competition and the legacy of coal and Martin Green created a documentary on BBC Radio 4, Love, Spit And Valve Oil, where he explored the world of brass bands, discovered why banding in Britain has outlasted the pits, the picket lines and the closures.  For generations, the self-contained world of the bands has been a refuge, a community-building practice and a source of healing.

Inspired by the conversations Green had with people during the creation of the Love, Spit and Valve Oil series on Radio 4 he created an audio drama, KELI which was released last December, along with an album, Split the Air.

This has now developed into a stage play, with Martin Green making his playwrighting debut. The play, KELI, will be performed by the National Theatre of Scotland and will be touring Scotland during 2025. KELI explores the world of Scottish brass bands and the ex-mining communities they serve, and explores this through the character of Keli, a teenage horn player - a fiery, sharp-witted teenager living in a former mining town. Coal means little to Keli, but the mines left music in the blood of the town. As the best player her brass band has ever had, music is easy. Everything else is a fight. Feeling trapped in small-town life, pressure mounts.

Martin Green is perhaps best known amongst lovers of folk-music as the virtuoso accordionist in the visionary folk trio Lau. He has also written the music for KELI, which will feature brass band music from his album Split the Air. Through collaboration with Whitburn Band, and other local brass bands around Scotland, this production continues to sustain ongoing relationships with Scottish brass bands and the communities they represent.

KELI will preview in Stirling before opening at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in May and tour to Dundee Rep Theatre, Perth Theatre and Tramway, Glasgow in 2025, 40 years after the miners’ strike of 1984-85 and will reach audiences across the country who belong to communities that were hugely affected by strike.  

Full details from the National Theatre of Scotland's website.

Sarasota Opera Concert Performance: The Music of Giuseppe Verdi

The Music of Giuseppe Verdi - Victor Starsky
Sarasota Opera (Photo: Sarasota Opera)

Verdi: excerpts from La forza del destino, Aida, Un ballo in maschera, Attila, La Traviata, Don Carlo, I Lombardi alla prima crociata, Rigoletto; Rochelle Bard, Young Bok Kim, Virginia Mims, Jean Carlos Rodriguez, Victor Starsky, Sarasota Orchestra, Victor DeRenzi; Sarasota Opera at Sarasota Opera House
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras, 15 November 2024

Having become the only opera company in the world to have presented every work by Verdi, Sarasota Opera continues its exploration of his music. In his latest Letter from Florida, Robert J Carreras reports on Sarasota's concert, The Music of Giuseppe Verdi

Maestro Victor DeRenzi has Giuseppe Verdi right where he wants him. The conductor's world is inching closer and closer to Verdi's world, creating an intimate bond across time and musical language. Some eight years after completing (2016) Sarasota Opera's endeavor to play every note Verdi wrote for opera, now DeRenzi manages to collect a set of complete-package singing-actors to further express the composer's intentions. With lots of space and the necessary tools to grow, each of these has the chops to one day be their generation's Verdians.

More and varied hearings of tenor Victor Starsky from Queens will bring to light whether he is on track to write his own ticket. In theater, Starsky's burnished, round, and ear-catching overtone series turns more compact into the passaggio, then blooms with enough brass to make things interesting in the higher reaches. It is a sizable tenor, the kind for which the more florid singing required in the bel canto repertoire is not ideally suited. Such roles hover with cantabile lines right at the break of the voice. No matter, Starsky will have wide access to a plethora of roles he is well-suited for, like Radames. After the finely sung passages of "Celeste Aida," the tenor took the last phrase (before repeating sans high note as Verdi wrote) "un trono vicino al sol" in one breath. Word has it he has a high C too. Victor Starsky will be returning to Sarasota Opera for the Winter season as Stiffelio, Verdi's opera of the same name.

The music is there, we only have to open our eyes: pianist Alexandra Dariescu on 100 Nutcrackers, advocating for women composers & a new direction at the Leeds International Piano Competition

Alexandra Dariescu (Photo: Nick Rutter)

Back in 2018, I met up with pianist Alexandra Dariescu [see my interview] to chat about The Nutcracker and I, her innovative stage performance blending live piano music and dance with digital animation, which she had debuted in 2017. Recently, I met up with Alexandra again to celebrate the fact that she reaches the 100th performance of The Nutcracker and I on 26 November 2024 at the Barbican's Milton Court and to talk about her continuing advocacy for music by women composers, along with developing a new string to her bow at this year's Leeds International Piano Competition.

Alexandra developed the Nutcracker project partly thanks to her participation in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama's Creative Entrepreneurs programme, and when we met up recently, it was in a gap during her coaching at the Guildhall School, where she was working with students who are 24 to 27. She feels that this is the right time for them to explore. She can help them open up their horizons to include contemporary music, music by women and artists of colour. She finds that the younger generation is more open to exploring, and she finds it rather different to her time at college. She feels, in a strange way, that the pandemic made people more curious.

She continues to have a thirst and curiosity as an artist, wanting to learn and develop constantly, and as time passes her interests change. Also, she finds people are now a lot more open-minded. She feels artists should reinvent themselves. She finds herself constantly learning from the orchestras that she plays with. Except for the UK, tours usually involve playing the same programme with an orchestra three times, and each one is different. She and the orchestral musicians get to know each other. Recently in Australia, she was playing Mozart and after three performances she and the orchestra reached a real chamber music feel.

Alexandra Dariescu: The Nutcracker and I

First public performance of Imogen Holst's Violin Concerto

Violinist Midori Komachi at Imogen Holst's house (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)
The bungalow designed and built specifically for the composer by modernist architect HT ‘Jim’ Cadbury-Brown in a corner of his garden, reflecting the architect’s own Japanese-influenced house opposite

On Sunday 24 November 2024, violinist Midori Komachi joins the Elgar Sinfonia, conductor Adrian Brown at St Andrew’s Church, Holborn for the first public performance of Imogen Holst's Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, written in 1935. 

The work uses Irish traditional airs and melodies from The Petrie Collection (published in 1855 and regarded as one of the most important nineteenth-century collections of traditional Irish music), perhaps reflecting Imogen Holst's enthusiasm for Folk Dance and Song reflected in her work at the Folk Dance and Song Society. The concerto received its first performance privately with Elsie Avril as soloist and the composer herself conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at an RCM Patron’s Fund rehearsal. But this does not seem to have led anywhere.

Midori Komachi discovered the work via the composer's manuscript which is now in the Archive, Britten Pears Arts in Aldeburgh, near to the composer’s home in Aldeburgh. From 1952 Imogen Holst worked with Britten, as his assistant and later as joint artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival. Thanks to Midori Komachi's championship, the work is being published by Faber Music. In 2022, I chatted to Midori about one of her earlier British music projects, RVW's music for violin and piano [see my interview]

The concert on 24 November will also feature Finzi's Eclogue for piano and strings with soloist Drew Steanson and music bv Elgar.

Further details from WeGotTickets.

A return to Manchester: ENO announces the first wave of its city-wide collaborations

Manchester Opera House - Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)

Regional arts provision is a curious thing, with different countries opting for radically different models. In Germany, most decent sized cities have a theatre that produces a mix of spoken drama, dance and opera, this is the main access to music theatre for most people. In the UK, since the 19th century, opera has been presented by touring companies, tours often being achieved by having the orchestra supplemented by local musicians (a model now used by the London Opera Company). Both these models have limitations, in terms of efficiency and musical standards.

There is something essentially curious about touring opera, putting an entire production in a van and taking it around (along with all the performers). But it is a very old model. After the first Ring Cycles at Bayreuth in 1876, Wagner sold the production and the impresario put it all in a special train and toured Europe with it. This was how people came to know the Ring Cycle. The naming of the Opera House in Manchester dates from the 1920s when companies were presenting opera there, and Beecham conducted the Ring Cycle there.

This was still happing in my youth. When I was a student in Manchester during the 1970s there was no idea venue for full-scale opera performance but companies made do with the Opera House and the Palace Theatre. English National Opera, Welsh National Opera and Glyndebourne Opera made regular visits to the city, performing in these theatres. During the three years that I was there I saw Reginald Goodall conducting The Valkyrie and Twilight of the Gods, Britten's Gloriana, Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier with ENO, Wagner's The Flying Dutchman and Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with WNO and Strauss' Capriccio and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress with Glyndebourne.

Plans were announced in 2008 for the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera to be resident at the refurbished Palace Theatre, but by 2010 fundings cuts meant that the plan was shelved. In the current atmosphere of either/or in Arts Funding, touring to Manchester has been reduced to a UK single company, Opera North (worth seeing and certainly not negligible), with touring also from the impresario Ellen Kent presenting international companies. Though the theatrical provision is far better with the refurbishment of the Palace Theatre and the building of the Lowry. The focus on UK regional opera companies has meant ENO looking increasingly and unfairly London-centric, but has also lead to the farcical situation where with the reduction in WNO funding, Liverpool has lots its visiting company. 

Now ENO is planning to base itself in Manchester, creating projects in the city. The company has now announced its plans for a focus on Manchester, with the first wave of plans and collaborations in the city aiming to be fully established there by 2029. Not surprisingly, the announced plans avoid any suggesting of putting the Ring Cycle in a van or on a train and shipping it to Manchester, the announced projects are all far more community based.

• From this Autumn, there will be a city-wide expansion of the ENO Breathe programme, ENO’s award-winning creative health programme, originally created for people recovering from COVID.  This new iteration of the ENO Breathe programme will support people living with other respiratory conditions.
• September 2024: ENO Engage will expand their national free music-making programme Finish This…, designed for primary, secondary and SEND schools to the city-region, working with 30 schools across Greater Manchester with further expansion in 2025/26
• Spring 2025: a new collaboration with Factory International through its award-winning Factory Academy training programme, offering vocational training opportunities in opera for young people living in Greater Manchester from backgrounds underrepresented in the arts, including opportunities as part of the creative and technical teams delivering Glass’s Einstein on the Beach.
• Summer 2025: Perfect Pitch, a celebration of opera and community football in a co-creation between Salford-based outdoor arts specialists, Walk the Plank, ENO, community groups and local football teams in the city-region. 
• Summer 2025: A special performance will be presented for Manchester Classical festival at The Bridgewater Hall, a collaboration between the Chorus of English National Opera and The Hallé.
• July 2025: The University of Manchester and ENO will work together on Tuning into Opera. This invites the people of Greater Manchester to explore the opportunities for the artform and discuss what it means to have an opera company based in the city-region. The first public conversation event will take place at Manchester International Festival at Aviva Studios
• September 2025: the creation of a Greater Manchester Youth Opera Company in partnership with Greater Manchester and Blackburn with Darwen Music Hub, working with young people aged 13-19 from across the city-region from backgrounds underrepresented and underserved in the arts. ENO will work with Royal Northern College of Music and a range of other partners to pilot the project.
• October 2025: the beginning of a new partnership with the Lowry, with the opening ENO’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring
• February 2026: a staged concert version of Mozart’s Così fan tutte with the Chorus and Orchestra of ENO, will be presented at The Bridgewater Hall 
• Spring 2026: of new work development programmes, designed to champion innovation in opera-making. The RNCM and ENO will launch a Creative Incubator, providing space, mentoring and performance platforms for artists and composers to develop new operatic work. Opera Factory GM will see ENO and Factory International co-create an ongoing series of cross-disciplinary research and development labs designed to explore new forms of opera. 
• May 2026: the UK premiere of Angel’s Bone by Chinese American composer Du Yun and librettist Royce Vavrek. This is a dark fable exploring modern-day slavery and human trafficking, produced by ENO in collaboration with Factory International, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and presented at Aviva Studios
• Spring 2027 will be the premiere of an immersive production of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s opera Einstein on the Beach. Following on from the success of his productions of Satyagraha and Akhnaten at ENO, this will be directed by Improbable Theatre’s Phelim McDermott. 

Further details from ENO's website.

National Centre for Early Music launches the 2025 Young Composers Award in association with BBC Radio 3, working with The Brook Street Band

NCEM Young Composers Award 2024 winners Ryan Collins and Charlotte Robertson with Ex Corde

Each year Young Composers Award is presented by the National Centre for Early Music in association with BBC Radio 3 and for the 2025 award, young composers will be working with the baroque instrumental group The Brook Street Band. Composers are invited to create a short work for two violins, cello and harpsichord – one of the most popular chamber music groupings of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, reflecting the extraordinarily inventive musical heritage of Purcell, Corelli and Handel – and creating a 21st century response to this wonderful music. 

The award is open to young composers up to the age of 25 resident in the UK and is divided into two categories: 18 years and under and 19 to 25 years. The Award Day will take place in York on Thursday 15 May 2025. There will be a daytime workshop for shortlisted candidates led by Dr Christopher Fox, and in the evening the compositions will be performed by The Brook Street Band at the National Centre for Early Music in York.

The winning works will be premiered by The Brook Street Band in October 2025 as part of the love:Handel festival and will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show and BBC Sounds.

Registration closes at 12 noon, Friday 7 February 2025, with the deadline for submission of scores on Friday 7 March. Shortlisted candidates will be informed by Friday 12 April and will be invited to attend the Award Day in York on Thursday 15 May. NCEM will meet reasonable travel and accommodation costs from within the UK.

Full details from the award website.

If you go down to the woods: a gender-fluid witch & an oppressive religious sect in this gripping performance of Jack Furness' intriguing take on Hänsel und Gretel from Royal Academy Opera

Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel - Zahid Siddiqui (Witch) - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel; Clover Kayne, Erin O'Rourke, Alex Bower-Brown, Zixin Tang, Zahid Siddiqui, director: Jack Furness, conductor: Johann Stuckenbruck, Royal Academy Opera; Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music
Reviewed 19 November 2024

A thought-provoking take on the traditional tale made all the more gripping by terrific performances all-round in an evening that was vivid theatrically and strong musically

Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel is an opera ripe for mining for its inner meanings. A heart warning story that hides darker themes, with music that is full of singable tunes yet weaves this into a Wagnerian complexity. Influential productions by David Pountney (for ENO) and Richard Jones (for WNO) have mined different aspects of the stories psychological complexity. And for all the well-established urtext, directors bring a surprising freedom to the casting which can highlight this, doubling Mother and the Witch for instance, or having the Witch played by a tenor rather than a dramatic mezzo-soprano.

For Royal Academy Opera's Autumn production at the Royal Academy of Music's Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Jack Furness directed Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel with Johann Stuckenbruck conducting the Royal Academy Sinfonia in a slightly reduced orchestration by Derek Clark. The opera was double cast and on 19 November 2024 we saw Clover Kayne as Hansel, Erin O'Rourke as Gretel, Alex Bower-Brown as Father, Zixin Tang as Mother, Zahid Siddiqui as the Witch, Charlotte Clapperton as the Sand Man and Abigail Sinclair as the Dew Man.

Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel - Hansel & Gretel (Clover Kayne & Erin O'Rourke) in the forest - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Jack Furness and designer Alex Berry seem to have taken a thought-provoking view of the opera, fixing on the religious aspect to the music to set it in the context of a Puritan religious sect with everyone wearing sober black and white costumes, with bonnets for the women. During the overture we saw Gretel (Erin O'Rourke) alone in a small, sparse room, using a knife to cut paper chains of figures out of a book with a knife, lighting a candle almost as an offering, and a dark, hooded figure hints that the witch may not be quite what we expect.

Daniel Kidane day at Wigmore Hall, from a new piano trio to music written for Manchester Camerata and a harpsichord concerto for Mahan Esfahani

Daniel Kidane (Photo: Kaupo Kikkas)

Wigmore Hall is devoting Saturday 30 November 2024 to composer Daniel Kidane. Born in Britain of Russian and Eritrean parentage, Kidane was talented young and sang in the children's chorus of the English National Opera. He studied composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, going on to continue his studies the St. Petersburg Conservatoire under Sergei Slonimsky.

Wigmore Hall's day begins with a morning concert from Leonore Piano Trio in a programme which includes Kidane's Flux and Stasis along with a new work for piano trio, alongside music by Shostakovich and Frank Bridge, plus a work by Gary Carpenter with whom Kidane studied at the RNCM.

In the afternoon concert, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group are joined by conductor Gabriella Teychenné, tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas and guitarist Pétur Jónasson for a programme that includes Kidane's Winged for electric guitar and string quartet, Pulsing, based on a poem by Zodwa Nyoni, plus Cradle Song and Primitive Blaze along with music by Rebecca Saunders.

In the evening, Manchester Camerata celebrate Kidane's music having been associated with the composer since 2009 when they commissioned Towards Resolution, which was inspired by the opening of Henry Purcell’s first three-part Fantazia. Ten years later another commission resulted in Be Still, a piece written in direct response to the passing of time during the months in which the nation was under lockdown. Alongside these they are performing Sublime Light and Veiled Light which form parts of Pieces of Light, written in 2020 during the COVID-19 period, Breathe for string orchestra and Movements, for harpsichord and strings, which Mahan Esfahani premiered in Miami in 2021. Also in the programme is music by Bach including two violin concertos with soloist Jonian Ilias Kadesha. Details from the Wigmore Hall website.

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light

We are all mesmerised by the return of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light to our TV screens, even though we know how it ends! Part of the atmosphere of the series is created by the score, written by Debbie Wiseman [read my 2023 interview with her] and this is released on Silva Screen Records on 13 December 2024.

To celebrate, there is an event at Rough Trade East (I know, a very Tudor sort of venue), on 13 December when Debbie Wiseman will be signing discs and there will be live performance of some of the music by the Locrian Ensemble, conducted by Debbie Wiseman. And there will also be a Q&A with the composer.

As if that wasn't enough to immerse you in the series, anyone arriving in appropriate Tudor attire will also receive a free CD of Series 1 of Wolf Hall!

Full details of the tickets from Dice.

Soprano Barbara Frittoli, pianist Caroline Dowdle & actor James Garnon in public masterclass at Marchmont House with Samling Artist Programme

Samling Masterclass at Marchmont House (Photo: Mark Pinder)

On Saturday 30 November 2024, Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli, pianist Caroline Dowdle and actor James Garnon will guide eight rising stars from the Samling Artist Programme through a lively mixture of song and opera in a public masterclass at Marchmont House, a Palladian house in Berwickshire, Scotland.

This masterclass comes at the end of the Samling Artist Programme, an intensive weeklong residency for early-career singers and pianists and is followed by performance and professional development opportunities as participants join a global family of over 400 artists. Over the course of their week together, the Samling Artists and their leaders build up a unique trust and rapport, making this final public event a masterclass like no other

The ticket price includes tea and homemade cakes with the artists and leaders during the interval in the beautiful public rooms at Marchmont House and a bus transfer from Berwick-upon-Tweed station is available for an additional charge.

Full details from the Samling Institute's website.

Share the Stage sees Royal Northern Sinfonia & Chorus perform Tippett's A Child of Our Time with local amateur musicians from across the North East

People's Requiem - Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Glasshouse, 2021

On Sunday 24 November 2024, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Chorus will be sharing the stage with local amateur musicians from across the North East to perform Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead. Conducted by Dinis Sousa, the performance will also feature soloists soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly, tenor Nicky Spence and bass-baritone Sir Willard White. 

Over 300 vocalists and musicians will squeeze onto the stage. Two thirds of these being passionate locals between the ages of 18 and 85. The event will mark one of the largest musical gatherings ever on the Sage One stage, bringing together amateur musicians and seasoned professionals from across the region and beyond. 

Share the Stage celebrates community through the joy of performing music together. Singers and instrumentalists of all levels and abilities from the North East are currently rehearsing to become one of the biggest performing groups the region will have ever seen, building on a previous landmark occasion, The People’s Requiem, in November 2020.

The singers have been supported through a series of weekly rehearsals by the friendly, fantastic Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia and their Director Tim Burke. Throughout choral rehearsals there have been two rehearsal groups: one for confident sheet-music readers and one for those who learn by ear. Share the Stage’s focus on enjoyment and enthusiasm has encouraged a wide variety of performers to take part.

A Child of Our Time also marks the launch of The Glasshouse’s 20th birthday year, kicking off a season of celebrations that will unfold over the next 12 months and culminate in the 21st anniversary in December 2025. Highlights will include a new Share the Stage project, a digital artist-in-residence programme, and a young people’s celebratory event.

Dinis Sousa said, “This project is a celebration of music as a central part of our community. As with our Verdi Requiem in 2021, we want people to have the time and space to really get inside the music, with support from our wonderful orchestra and chorus, as we prepare for a monumental performance at The Glasshouse. Making music together, in such a welcoming but stretching environment can be a life-affirming experience, and I know that   we will all treasure these weeks we spend together bringing “A Child of Our Time” to life.” 

Full details from the Glasshouse's website.

Sinfonia Smith Square's Christmas Festival

Sinfonia Smith Square's Christmas Festival

It's had a bit of a name change, but the Christmas Festival is returning to Smith Square this December for a programme of seasonal specials and favourites, with concerts from 9 to 23 December 2024 at Smith Square Hall (formerly St John's Smith Square).

Anna Lapwood and the choirs of Pembroke College begin things on 9 December with A Pembroke Christmas featuring music by John Rutter, David Bednall, and Kristina Arakelyan, plus Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and Patricia Van Ness’ The Nine Orders of the Angels: Archangelus. Then on 12 December, National Youth Voices join Sinfonia Smith Square and conductor Nicholas Chalmers for an evening Christmas choral classics including music by John Rutter, Errollyn Wallen, Matthew Martin and Judith Weir, plus Finzi's In Terra Pax and RVW's Fantasia on Christmas Carols.

Christmas with the London Mozart Players sees the orchestra's brass ensemble performing festive favourites, then Eric Whitacre and the Eric Whitacre Singers are joined by pianist Christopher Glynn for a Christmas programme that mixes Whitacre's own music with that by Anna Lapwood, Philip Stopford, Kristina Arakelyan and Shawn Kirchner.  And of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without The Snowman with Sinfonia Smith Square, conductor Ellie Slorach providing live accompaniment to the film and its animate sequal, The Snowman and the Snowdog.

Graham Ross conducts the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge in Bethlehem Star, programme of carols and motets including choral works by Rheinberger, Arvo Pärt, Reena Esmail, James Whitbourn, Cecilia McDowall, Jonathan Dove, and Clare College alumnus John Rutter. Then for something a little bit different, Opera Holland Park will be presenting two semi-stage performances of Will Todd's musical retelling of A Christmas Carol, directed by Martin Duncan with Alys Roberts, Fleur de Bray, Charlotte Badham, Victoria Simmonds, Charne Rochford, Julien Van Mellaerts, Robert Winslade Anderson and Paul Carey Jones and actor Kim Benjamin. London Choral Sinfonia (LCS) present Christmas Fantasia with RVW's piece making its second appearance alongside the winner of LCS Carol Competition.

Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars present In Dulci Jubilo, a selection of Gregorian chant, and the works it has gone on to inspire from Hildegard of Bingen to Arvo Pärt. Stephen Layton, Polyphony and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment make two appearances at the festival. First there are the first three parts of Bach's Christmas Oratorio with soloists Anna Dennis, Iestyn Davies, James Gilchrist and Neal Davies, then bringing the festival to a close is Handel's Messiah with Anna Dennis, Iestyn Davies, James Gilchrist and Neal Davies.

Full details from the Sinfonia Smith Square website.

Au cimetièrère de Montmartre: baritone Julien Van Mellaerts & pianist Alphonse Cemin in an imaginative trawl through the denizens of a Paris cemetery

 Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris (Photo: Wikipedia)

Au cimetièrère de Montmartre: Schumann, Berlioz, Lili Boulanger, Poulenc, Yvette Guibert, Charles Trenet; Julien Van Mellaerts, Alphonse Cemin; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 17 November 2024

An imaginative trawl through the denizens of a Paris cemetery links together Heine, Berlioz, Boulanger and Poulenc in an engaging recital

Baritone Julien Van Mellaerts now lives in Paris, and not far from his home is Montmartre cemetery, and its denizens formed the theme of his recital at Wigmore Hall on Sunday 17 November 2024 with pianist Alphonse Cemin. Their programme linked an intriguingly diverse group of composers and poets, Schumann's Dichterliebe, songs from Berlioz' Les nuits d'été a song by Lili Boulanger, Poulenc's Banalités and cabaret songs by Yvette Guibert and Charles Trenet.

We began with Schumann's Dichterliebe, which sets poetry by Heinrich Heine who was buried in Montmartre in 1856. Heine lived in Paris from 1831, moving there partly because of the July Revolution of 1830 but also to escape German censorship, though Dichterliebe uses poetry from Heine's Lyrisches Intermezzo published in 1823. It is worth pointing out that Schumann softened Heine's edges and the poems are full of self-hatred and mockery.

Alphonse Cemin's gentle, intimate piano eased us into the song cycle and throughout I enjoyed his way with Schumann, combining fluidity, clarity and intimacy. This complemented Van Mellaerts way with the songs, prioritising the text and allowing an element of the histrionic into his presentation without every feeling operatic.

New World Symphony Veterans Day Concert: A World War II Journey with Lidiya Yankovskaya and Emily Magee

New World Symphony Veterans Day Concert: A World War II Journey - Michael Tilson Thomas Performance Hall (Photo: Alex Markow, courtesy of New World Symphony)

New World Symphony Veterans Day Concert: A World War II Journey; conductor: Lidiya Yankovskaya, Emily Magee (soprano), British historian James Holland (host), New World Symphony
New World Center, Michael Tilson Thomas Performance Hall, Miami Beach, Florida
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras, 11 November 2024

In what we hope will be the first of an occasional series from Florida, Robert J Carreras reports on the New World Symphony Orchestra's Veterans Day Concert: A World War II Journey

Thirty-six days. The severity of the coming 36 days was made plain to 20-year-old marine Richard Jessor by a U.S. Navy commanding officer: “Tomorrow night at this time, a lot of you are going to be dead.” From Brooklyn to Iwo Jima – over 7000 miles – in less than a year’s time. Such was the journey of many a young American boy soldier as of December 7, 1941.

A soldier flying with Windtalkers over the Pacific as explosions litter the sky. A soldier rushing desperately to scale a vertical wall of earth at Normandy. A soldier scanning flight plans and tactics to take on the Luftwaffe. A Tuskegee soldier from Haiti, from Puerto Rico, from Jamaica. A soldier thrust into fighting alongside other young boys from lands far and wide. A soldier from Brixton. A soldier from Portree. A soldier from Cooladdi. A soldier from Pripyat. A soldier liberating the concentration camp at Bergen Belsen. A soldier from Peoria; from Massapequa; from Snohomish; from Kalamazoo.

Richard Jessor of Brooklyn (and you had better get it right – “Brooklyn is different than New York!”) captivated and charmed with memories of his 36 days in Iwo Jima, a warm-up to New World Symphony’s (NWS) Veterans Day concert: A World War II Journey on Friday, November 9, 2024. This concert is in the larger context of the 2024-25 season’s Resonance of Remembrance, marking the 80th anniversary of World War II (WWII) and the Holocaust. As ever, NWS curates a multimedia experience; all selections for this evening demonstrate a thoughtful and creative expression of NWS’s vision to account for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

New World Symphony Veterans Day Concert: A World War II Journey - Lidiya Yankovskaya, conductor - Michael Tilson Thomas Performance Hall (Photo: Alex Markow, courtesy of New World Symphony)

Classical music is experiencing a proverbial enlightenment period with women leading historically acclaimed orchestras internationally. NWS is at the vanguard of that inertia, as evidenced by the presence of Xian Zhang in October and Lidiya Yankovskaya here.

Glorious performances from Rhian Lois and Thomas Atkins lift ENO's new production of Donizetti's The Elixir of Love

Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - Brandon Cedel, Bridget Lappin - English National Opera, 2024 (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Donizetti: The Elixir of Love (L'elisir d'amore); Brandon Cedel, Rhian Lois, Thomas Atkins, Dan D'Souza, director: Harry Fehr, conductor: Teresa Riveiro Böhm; English National Opera at the London Coliseum
Reviewed 15 November 2024

Reset to the England of the 1940s, Fehr's production misses some of the warmth of Donizetti's comedy but the evening was redeemed by glorious performances particular from Rhian Lois and Thomas Atkins

Harry Fehr worked at English National Opera as a young assistant director some twenty years ago and has now returned to direct ENO's new production of Donizetti's The Elixir of Love (L'elisir d'amore), an opera last seen in the house in 2011 in Jonathan Miller's rather strange transposition of the opera to 1950s South-West America.

The Elixir of Love, directed by Harry Fehr with sets by Nicky Shaw and costumes by Zahra Mansouri opened at the London Coliseum on Friday 15 November 2024.  The conductor was Teresa Riveiro Böhm, the Austrian Spanish conductor was Leverhulme Conducting Fellow with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in association with the BBC Scottish Symphony from 2019 to 2021, then Associate Conductor of Welsh National Opera for 2022/23. Rhian Lois was Adina, Thomas Atkins was Nemorino, Brandon Cedel was Dulcamara, Dan D'Souza was Belcore and Segomotso Shupinyaneng was Gianetta.

L'elisir d'amore is an opera that can take any number of settings, but it seems to work best when the production concentrates on the characters and does not try to hard with the settings. One of the reasons why Laurent Pelly's production at Covent Garden worked so well [see my 2012 review on Opera Today] is that Pelly did not push the period setting to hard.

Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - Thomas Atkins, Rhian Lois - English National Opera, 2024 (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Fehr and his designers set the opera in the 1940s England, a country house (owned by Rhian Lois' Adina) taken over for the war and filled with land girls and RAF. As a concept it worked well enough, but Fehr seemed to have watched one too many episodes of Dads Army, and the whole was enveloped in the idea of it as a sitcom, complete with cod video titles (designer Matt Powell) at the beginning and end. I am reliably informed that the designers managed to get the colours of both the RAF uniforms and those of the land girls wrong, though whether this was deliberate or accidental, I am unclear.

One of the reasons why Donizetti's comedies have stayed in the repertoire is that there is a warmth to them, he creates genuine characters. Unfortunately, what Fehr's production did was to push the other element of the operas, their cruelty. For all the fine singing and engaging performances, Fehr seemed to just miss the right tone.

Life enhancing: the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

Bach: Brandenburg Concertos; Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Queen Elizbeth Hall
Reviewed 13 November 2024

The Brandenburg Concertos complete, vivid, vibrant and sometimes a little raw, the sheer energy, enthusiasm and technical nous really carrying you away

Bach almost certainly never intended his Brandenburg Concertos to be performed en masse, all six at once. In fact, we have no record at all of any performances of the concertos in this form during Bach's lifetime, his presentation manuscript (see illustration above) for Six Concerts Avec plusieurs instruments simply sat in the Margrave of Brandenburg's library; so, at least someone regarded the work well enough to look after it.

After all, the various different line ups for the concertos make this rather an extravagant gesture. We don't really know why this particular set of concertos with these particular scorings, and there remain plenty of questions about the pieces. But in the right performances the music lifts vividly off the page. 

This was ample demonstrated by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's (OAE) performances of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos at the Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall on 13 November 2024. The 21 musicians performed one to part, without a conductor with violinists Huw Daniel, Margaret Faultess and Rodolfo Richter sharing the directing, with violist Oliver Wilson directing the sixth concerto.

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Queen Elizabeth Hall

The Brandenburg Concertos have played an important role in the OAE's life, ever since the ensemble's founding (they celebrate 40 years in 2026) and one of the players was actually around for the ensemble's very first performance of the music!

For the evening's concert, the concertos were arranged in non-numerical order, creating a nice balance of solo instruments. We began with first concerto, which features the horns, then the third, strings only, then the fifth, with flute, violin and harpsichord. After the interval it was more wind, with the fourth, with two recorders and violin, then strings again with the sixth concerto with its violas, cello and violas da gamba, then we finally returned to brass with the second concerto with its high trumpet part.

Bushra El-Turk, Gavin Higgins, Laurence Osborn, Errollyn Wallen, Roxanna Panufnik, Gavin Bryars & more honoured at 2024 Ivors Classical Awards

Roxanna Panufnik, Gavin Bryars, Errollyn Wallen at the Ivors Classicxal Awards, BFI Southbank, London (Photo: Hogan Media - Shutterstock)

On Tuesday 12 November, The Ivors Academy honoured eleven composers with Ivor Novello Awards at the Ivors Classical Awards. Special awards were presented to Errollyn Wallen, Roxanna Panufnik and Gavin Bryars, five composers won awards for the first time, Gavin Bryars, Bushra El-Turk, Cassandra Miller, Laurence Osborn and Roxanna Panufnik, whilst Matthew Herbert, Gavin Higgins, Brian Irvine, Dan Jones, Rebecca Saunders and Errollyn Wallen all have previously received awards.

BBC Radio 3 will broadcast the ceremony on 16 November from 10:30pm in a special edition of the New Music Show and the episode will also be available on BBC Sounds.

Gavin Higgins, winner of the Best Orchestral Composition award
at the Ivors Classicxal Awards, BFI Southbank, London
(Photo: Hogan Media - Shutterstock)

• Bushra El-Turk received the Best Stage Work Composition award for Woman at Point Zero, her opera for two voices, ancient folk instruments and pre-recorded audio samples. Commissioned by LOD Muziektheater, the work features a libretto by Stacy Hardy and received its first UK performance at the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House with Dima Orsho, Carla Nahadi Babelegoto and ensemble ZAR. [see my interview with Bushra El-Turk]
• Gavin Higgins’ Horn Concerto won Best Orchestral Composition. Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and Philharmonie Zuidnederland, the work was performed by Ben Goldscheider and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Jaime Martin, at Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff. [see my review of the work's London premiere]
• Laurence Osborn’s TOMB!, composed for strings, percussion and piano, was awarded the Best Chamber Ensemble Composition award. Commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Cheltenham Festival and Kings Place, the work was performed by 12 Ensemble and GBSR Duo. 
• Cassandra Miller received the Best Choral Composition award for The City, Full of People, a piece for mixed choir of 16 singers that was commissioned by Éamonn Quinn of Louth Contemporary Music Society. The piece was performed by the National Chamber Choir Ireland and Paul Hillier at King’s College Chapel in Aberdeen as part of the Aberdeen Sound Festival. 
• Brian Irvine’s A Children’s Guide to Anarchy, for ensemble and singers, won the Best Community and Participation Composition award. The work was commissioned by Dumbworld and Red Note Ensemble, the libretto was created by John McIlduff and children of Oakwood Primary School, Easterhouse and was performed by Red Note Ensemble and Oakwood Primary School in Glasgow.
• Matthew Herbert’s The Horse, for orchestra, horse skeleton and electronics, collected the Best Large Ensemble Composition award. The piece received its live premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival in a performance by Matthew Herbert, Momoko Gill, Hugh Jones, Eoin McCaul, Gracel Delos and the London Contemporary Orchestra. 
• Rebecca Saunders’ The Mouth for soprano and tape won the Best Small Chamber Composition award. Commissioned by Annie Claire for ManiFeste Festival in Paris, the first UK performance was by Juliet Fraser and Newton Armstrong at the Britten Studio in Snape Maltings as part of the Aldeburgh Festival. 
• Dan Jones’ Each Tiny Drop, a sonic accompaniment to Risham Syed’s interactive water ritual on the banks of the River Medlock, won the Best Sound Art award. It was commissioned by Factory International to open the Manchester International Festival and celebrate connections between Manchester and Pakistan.
  

Errollyn Wallen was honoured with Fellowship of The Ivors Academy – the highest honour the Academy bestows. Roxanna Panufnik received her first Ivor Novello Award tonight in recognition of her consistently exceptional body of work. Gavin Bryars was presented a Gift of the Academy award for Innovation, celebrating his visionary approach to composition and the impact his music has had on fellow composers. 

Further details from the Ivors Academy website.