Ivors Classical Awards 2023 winners announced

Florence Lockheart
Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Winners of the newly rebranded awards were announced at a ceremony held at the British Film Institute last night

Ivors Academy chair Tom Gray: 'We celebrated the vibrancy of composing for classical music and sound art in the UK and Ireland. It is so important that we must advocate more determinedly than ever for its future.' © Hogan Media/Shutterstock
Ivors Academy chair Tom Gray: 'We celebrated the vibrancy of composing for classical music and sound art in the UK and Ireland. It is so important that we must advocate more determinedly than ever for its future.' © Hogan Media/Shutterstock

At an awards ceremony held yesterday evening at London’s BFI Southbank the Ivors Academy revealed the 11 composers winning Ivor Novello Awards at the newly renamed Ivors Classical Awards. Hosted by broadcasters Hannah Peel and Tom Service, the ceremony will be available to listen to as part of BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show on 18 November.

The awards aim to celebrate the best new classical music and sound art by British, Irish or UK resident composers created in the last year. Each entry has been judged anonymously by a jury of 40 composer judges who nominated between three and five works for each category.

Ben Nobuto, winner of Best Choral Composition © Hogan Media/Shutterstock

Ivors Academy chair Tom Gray said: ‘I would like to congratulate all our winners for their extraordinary accomplishments. Tonight, we celebrated the vibrancy of composing for classical music and sound art in the UK and Ireland. It is so important that we must advocate more determinedly than ever for its future. 2024 marks our 80th anniversary… and in our anniversary year, we will increase our campaigning and lobbying for the value of new music and the arts, so they are thriving everywhere for everyone.’

Chosen from a total of 34 nominees, the 11 award-winners are:

  • Best chamber ensemble composition – Növények composed by Thomas Adès for mezzo-soprano and piano sextet.
  • Best choral composition – Sol composed by Ben Nobuto (pictured above) for the National Youth Choir of Great Britain’s Fellowship ensemble.
  • Best community and participation composition in association with ABRSM – Swarm Fanfares composed by Dobrinka Tabakova for youth orchestra.
  • Best large ensemble composition – Shouting Forever into the Receiver composed by Hannah Kendall for 17 musicians.
  • Best orchestral composition – Cello Concerto composed by Brett Dean for symphony orchestra and solo cello.
  • Best small chamber composition – Comme L’espoir/You Might All Disappear composed by Josephine Stephenson for soprano and guitar.
  • Best sound art – LOL, a site-specific piece using the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network, created by Olivia Louvel.
  • Best stage work – Least Like The Other: Searching For Rosemary Kennedy, a one-act opera focusing on the lobotomy of JFK’s sister Rosemary Kennedy.
  • Academy fellowship, the Academy’s highest accolade – John Rutter, acknowledging him as ‘one of the most influential choral composers of our time’.
  • Outstanding works collection – Tansy Davies in honour of her ‘consistently exceptional body of classical compositions’.
  • Innovation award in association with the Musicians’ Union – Matthew Herbert in recognition of his ‘pioneering work in electronic music and his experimental use of unconventional sounds as instrumentation’.

Six composers collected Ivor Novello Awards for the very first time: Matthew Herbert,
Hannah Kendall, Olivia Louvel, Ben Nobuto, Josephine Stephenson and Dobrinka Tabakov. The publishing company of each winning work also received Ivor Novello Award statuettes this year. Faber Music, Valonius Press-Schott Music, G Ricordi-Universal Music Publishing, Boosey & Hawkes and Éditions Alphonse Leduc were all recognised