ABO announces this year’s Sirens grants to promote music of historical women

The Association of British Orchestras (ABO) has today announced their fifth round of grants from the Sirens Fund for orchestras performing music by historic women composers from around the world.

Started with a gift from Diana Ambache in 2016, the Sirens fund is managed by the ABO Trust and aims to raise awareness for music written by historical women worldwide. Annual grants are allocated according to the range and value of each project with up to £19,000 shared between 4 to 5 projects for concerts, tours, recordings, and education work. The awards panel for the current round comprised Diana Ambache, Helen Wallace (Kings Place), Edwina Wolstencroft (BBC Radio 3), Gillian Moore (Southbank Centre), and Fiona Harvey (ABO).

Diana Ambache, founder of the Sirens Fund said: ‘The recipients of this year’s Sirens Fund awards certainly offer rich discoveries for many people with the two Holmes pieces, Williams's Zodiac, Price's Ethiopia, gutsy Bacewicz, and Sea Sketches for the Scottish Islanders - plenty to engage and be stirred by.’ Meet this year’s grant recipients below:

The Hallé have received a grant to perform Florence Price’s Ethiopia’s Shadow in America. Price, the first African-American woman to gain recognition as a symphonic composer, was originally commissioned to write for the Hallé Orchestra in 1951, but no evidence of any finished piece survives. The Hallé will instead perform Ethiopia’s Shadow in America, which will also be featured in Hallé for Youth in 2022 and form part of the schools’ project that accompanies each concert. 

Nevis Ensemble will be performing Sea Sketches by Grace Williams, a five-movement work for string orchestra depicting different moods of the sea. The Ensemble have received a grant to take their performances of Sea Sketches around the islands of the Inner Hebrides, to schools, community spaces, social care and health care settings as part of an extensive tour of free participatory performances.

Royal College of Music have been awarded a Sirens grant to perform Zodiac Suite by Mary Lou Williams (arranged by Laura Jurd). Often described as the first female jazz composer Mary Lou Williams was a musical prodigy, playing piano with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. Zodiac Suite is a 12-piece work with each movement representing a zodiac sign and dedicated to musicians Williams performed with. The RCM will also perform concerts for schools on 12 October 2021 which will be based around the theme of the Zodiac Suite. 

Royal Scottish National Orchestra have also received a grant to deliver the Scottish premiere of Divertimento for Strings by Grażyna Bacewicz. Conducted by Elim Chan, the performance will also be available to watch online.

A Siren grant has been awarded to the National Orchestra for All (NOFA) for performances Andromède by Augusta Holmes as part of a series of pieces that NOFA will be rehearsing throughout its residential and online courses in 2022. The piece will be performed at the end of each course 

Ulster Orchestra have also received a grant to perform La Nuit et L’amour (Night and Love) by the French-Irish composer Augusta Holmès who boldly flouted the conventions of the late 19^th century produce powerful and political work. 

For further information about the ABO visit their website.