The Ivors Composer Awards 2021

The Ivors Composer Awards were held this Wednesday (8 December) at the British Museum. Hosted by BBC Radio 3’s Tom Service and Sara Mohr-Pietsch, the awards will be broadcast on the station’s New Music Show on 11 December.

First presented in 1956, the Ivor Novello Awards were set up to celebrate creative excellence in composing and song writing. This year, to reflect the changes brought about by the pandemic, The Ivors Academy adjusted its definition of ‘first UK performance’ to allow works which had their first public appearance on a commercial recording or in concerts that were live streamed anywhere in the world, as long as they could be viewed by the UK public.

Graham Davis, CEO of the Ivors Academy, opened the awards by acknowledging the hardships sustained by the music industry throughout the pandemic, citing the 69,000 jobs wiped out by Covid. However, he ended his speech on a note of hope, stating that this year’s awards are ‘testament to the fortitude and resilience of everyone involved’, and setting forth a plan for the future involving the strengthening of creators’ rights, investment in creative industries and returning to composers and songwriters more of the value gained from streaming their works.

Davis’ speech was followed by a welcome from Nigel Elderton, the chair of the PRS member’s council, who mentioned that it is ‘particularly encouraging to see so many first-time nominees’, with six out of ten of this year’s winners receiving an award from The Ivors Academy for the first time, as well as 18 nominees who had received funding from PRS for music.

The first award of the night was presented to Nikki Iles for her jazz composition The Caged Bird, which the jury described as ‘beautifully crafted, balanced and realised’. Written during the early stages of the UK lockdown in 2020, the piece’s atmosphere of enforced stillness was informed by Iles’ experience of suffering from a detached retina while her work and collaborations were being cancelled.

Next, Martin Iddon won the Ivor Novello Award for his Solo Composition with Lampades, a ‘strikingly beautiful and original sound world’ according to the jury. Iddon particularly thanked Jack Adler-Mckean, who commissioned and performed the piece, for his collaboration, recalling that Adler-Mckean remained enthusiastic when the 10-minute piece he had requested became around half an hour in length, with a two and a half hour recording time and ‘a recording of the radiator in [Iddon’s] office not working very well running all the way through it’.

This year’s Impact Award went to Zoe Rahman, who was described by the Ivors Academy as ‘one of Britain’s most powerful compositional voices and important contemporary artists’. Her award was presented by British pianist, chair of The Ivors Academy’s Awards Committee and fellow of the Academy, Julian Joseph, who described her as ‘one of the most gifted pianists, composers [and] band leaders’ show ‘should be more recognised’. Rahman combines influences from her English, Irish and Bengali heritage to write energetic and lyrical jazz music. In her acceptance speech Rahman reminisced that she ‘played [her] first jazz tune literally 30 years ago’ to Julian Joseph, saying ‘I think he knows my music better than I do’.

UK-based American composer Caroline Kraabel accepted the Sound Art award for her work, London 26 and 28 March 2020: Imitation: Inversion, with a heartfelt speech. The work, written for double bass with baritone, alto and sopranino saxophones, was part of a 40-minute film including shots of a deserted London during the UK’s first Covid lockdown. Kraabel used her acceptance speech to remember Carol Chant, ‘the musician and artist to whom the film is dedicated, [who] died of Covid-19 in March 2020’ and to examine the government’s response to the pandemic.

This year’s Ivor Novello award for Outstanding Works Collection went to Alexander Goehr, in recognition for his achievements across a seven decade career, in which ‘Goehr has been a consistent force for innovation and discourse in contemporary classical music.’ Approaching his 90^th birthday, Goehr was unable to attend the awards, but the audience was treated to a film of him accepting his bronze statuette from Sally Groves, former creative director of Schott Music, at his home in Cambridge. Goehr commented that throughout his career he has ‘tried to find out what’s good about music’ but humorously admitted ‘I’m afraid I haven’t got the answer.’

Next, the Small Chamber Composition award was given to this year’s youngest award-winner, Alex Paxton, for his composition, Sometimes Voices. Written for keyboard and drums, the piece was described by the jury as ‘a highly innovative work of exceptional creative imagination and musical energy’. Following this, Thomas Adès won the Vocal or Choral Composition award for his Gyökér (Root), commissioned by Oliver Zeffman as part of his ‘Eight Songs from Isolation’ project. Zeffman picked up the award on Adès behalf this evening as Adès was unable to attend.

The 2021 Innovation Award was presented by Julian Joseph, who described Watkiss as an artist who ‘constantly regenerates’ and ‘cannot be pigeon-holed’. Cleveland Watkiss MBE dedicated his award to his mother who ‘raised eight of us in Hackney during the late 50s, early 60s’. The award recognises Watkiss’ status as a pioneer who is ‘unique globally and in the annals of British Jazz and contemporary music, uncategorisable’.

This was followed by the Large-Scale Composition Award, won by UK-based Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir for her CATAMORPHOSIS exploring the ‘fragile relationship between humankind and the planet’.

The final award of the evening was the Visionary Award, given to Sarah Angliss in celebration of her unique compositions, which the jury noted conveyed ‘emotional depth and great beauty’. Classically trained in baroque and renaissance music, Angliss has also studied electroacoustic engineering and robotics, and uses both sides of her education to inform her compositions. Actor, singer and writer Sarah Gabriel presented the award, imaginatively describing Angliss as ‘a woman in possession of at least three full absorbent brains, orbited by some sort of perpetual motion fairground ride of ideas.’ Gabriel praised Angliss, commenting that ‘collaborating with Sarah is pure joy’. Angliss used her speech to thank the musicians who perform her work and ‘make the sounds that weave the spell’.

Although the evening did provide a sobering moment to stop and take stock of all that was lost to the Covid pandemic, this year’s Ivors Composer Awards nominees and winners are testament to the wonderful creativity that still persevered throughout that tough period.