Composers honoured at the 2024 Ivors Classical Awards

The Ivors Classical Awards took place last night, with winners of 11 Ivor Novello Awards revealed at a ceremony hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenters Kate Molleson and Tom Service at the British Film Institute in London.

The Awards, which celebrate the best new classical music and sound art by British, Irish and UK resident composers, will be broadcast in a special edition of BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show on 16 November. This year’s ceremony also welcomed new sponsors, exclusive streaming partner Presto Music and Dorico, sponsor of the Best Orchestral Composition award.

Ivors Academy chair Tom Gray said ‘The Ivors Classical Awards celebrate extraordinary accomplishments in contemporary classical music and sound art. Tonight, we honour the composers who are shaping our musical landscape. These awards underscore the Academy's commitment to championing true originality and craft.’

The full list of winners can be found below:

• Best Chamber Ensemble Composition – Tomb! composed by Laurence Osborn for strings, percussion and piano
• Best Choral Composition – The City, Full of People composed by Cassandra Miller for mixed choir of 16 singers
• Best Community and Participation Composition (in association with ABRSM) – A Children's Guide to Anarchy (An Easterhouse Children's Manifesto) composed by Brian Irvine for ensemble and singers
• Best Large Ensemble Composition – The Horse composed by Matthew Herbert for orchestra, horse skeleton and electronics
• Best Orchestral Composition (in association with Dorico) – Horn Concerto composed by Gavin Higgins for horn and orchestra
• Best Small Chamber Composition – The Mouth composed by Rebecca Saunders
  for soprano and tape
• Best Sound Art – Each Tiny Drop by Dan Jones, a sonic accompaniment to Risham Syed’s interactive water ritual on the banks of the River Medlock
• Best Stage Work Composition – Woman at Point Zero composed by Bushra El-Turk, an opera for two voices, ancient folk instruments and pre-recorded audio samples

A jury of 42 composer judges from The Ivors Academy considered over 360 works entered for this year’s Awards, judging the eight categories anonymously.

The Academy Fellowship, the Academy’s highest honour, was awarded to Errollyn Wallen for her ‘exceptional achievements and the creative excellence of her work’. Wallen became the Academy’s 28^th Fellow, having become the first female composer to receive an Ivor Novello Award for classical music in 2013. Roxanna Panufnik received her first Ivor Novello Award in recognition of her Outstanding Works Collection and diverse achievements across choral, opera and instrumental compositions.

Gavin Bryars was presented with a Gift of the Academy award for Innovation (in association with the Musicians’ Union), celebrating his ‘visionary approach’ to composition and his contributions to the concert hall and beyond. His work was praised by the Academy as ‘consistently original and experimental whilst remaining accessible, making a distinctive impact on British musical culture.’