YCAT announces inaugural Composer Fellowship recipients

The Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) has announced the two recipients of its inaugural Composer Fellowship. Created in memory of Austrian-British musician and writer Hans Keller and run in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Society, the new initiative aims to support and nurture emerging composers.

Each year a Composer Fellow will be selected to receive a commission to write two short chamber works for specific YCAT artists. However, in the scheme’s inaugural year and in celebration of YCAT’s 40^th anniversary, an additional fellow has been chosen to write a short work for mixed chamber ensemble. Scottish-Greek composer and pianist Electra Perivolaris and Bedfordshire-based composer James B. Wilson will be YCAT’s first composer fellows.

YCAT CEO and artistic director Alasdair Tait said: ‘This is an exciting new step for YCAT and I am so excited about the potential to bring artists together with some of our most creative young British composers. This is also a tremendous opportunity for the artists to collaborate fully in the creation of personal new works, carrying them forward throughout the rest of their performing lives.’

Perivolaris’ new work will be premiered across several regional UK performances, culminating in a YCAT Wigmore Hall lunchtime recital. Wilson will be commissioned by YCAT and the Royal Philharmonic Society (in memory of Colin Clark) to write a piece to be performed next February as part of YCAT’s 40th anniversary European tour which is set to feature both current and past YCAT artists.

The fellows will work closely with YCAT artists throughout the composition process. Perivolaris said: ‘The opportunity to collaborate and create new music for exciting YCAT musicians with emerging careers on the concert stage will be not only hugely rewarding but will help to further develop my craft as a composer.’