Ivors Composer Awards 2022 nominees announced

The Ivors Academy has today announced the nominations for the 2022 Ivors Composer Awards. This year marks the 20^th edition of the awards, which have taken place annually since 2003.

Award winners will be revealed at a live awards ceremony at the British Museum on 15 November. Hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenters Hannah Peel and Tom Service, the ceremony will be broadcast on the station’s New Music Show on 19 November.

Alan Davey, BBC Radio 3 controller, said: ‘It is with great joy and pride that we renew our partnership with The Ivors Composer Awards this year, in their 20th edition – 20 years of putting a spotlight on some of the UK’s most imaginative composers. Giving our listeners across the country and around the world the opportunity to discover and appreciate new and experimental music is one of Radio 3’s core missions’.

Many of this year’s nominated works use music to reflect on themes including racism, sexism, capitalism and social media as well as the natural world and climate change. The nominees in each category are:

Chamber Ensemble: Classical works composed for four to eighteen instruments, and for one instrument or voice per part.

• Aesop 2 composed by Robin Haigh
• Essential Relaxing Classical Hits composed by Laurence Osborn
• Madame Ma Bonne Sœur composed by Brett Dean
• Music for Bosch People composed by Alex Paxton
• The Big House composed by Oliver Leith

Choral: Classical works specifically composed for voices; either a capella or accompanied.

• All Shall Be Well composed by Joanna Marsh
• A Short Story of Falling composed by Joanna Marsh
• Carmina Tempore Viri (Songs in Time of Virus) composed by Ken Hesketh
• Seascapes composed by Kristina Arakelyan
• There Is No Rose composed by Cecilia McDowall

Community and Participation (in association with ABRSM): works composed for voluntary, amateur or youth performers and/or community engagement

• Daylighting composed by Louise Drewett
• Isle of Sound composed by Emily Peasgood
• Something Exciting composed by Derri Joseph Lewis
• The Selfish Giant composed by John Barber
• When A Child Is A Witness – Requiem For Refugees composed by Liz Dilnot Johnson

Jazz Ensemble: Jazz compositions which contain improvisation as an essential element

• 22:22 composed by Dan Mar-Molinero
• Birds Of Paradise composed by Tori Freestone
• Cwmwl Tystion Ii – Riot! Suite composed by Tomos Williams
• Plant Based Patterns composed by David De La Haye
• To Love Itself composed by Alex Hitchcock

Large Ensemble: Classical works composed for up to thirty-six players.

• Candyfolk Space-Drum composed by Alex Paxton
• Concerto Grosso composed by Joe Cutler
• Houses Slide composed by Laura Bowler
• Scenes From The Wild composed by Cheryl Frances-Hoad
• Sleeptalker composed by Robin Haigh

Orchestral: Large symphonic works, including works for choir and orchestra.

• Acts of Waves composed by Edmund Finnis
• À Mon Seul Désir composed by Brian Irvine
• Concerto For Orchestra composed by George Benjamin
• Litanies composed by Julian Anderson
• To An Utterance composed by Rebecca Saunders

Small Chamber: Classical works composed for one to three instruments, and for one instrument or voice per part.

• Corale composed by Benjamin Graves
• Fantasie Di Strani E Dolci Misteri Della Parola composed by James Weeks
• Natural World composed by Laurence Crane
• Rosalind composed by Hannah Kendall
• This Unquiet Autumn composed by Lara Agar

Sound Art: Non concert format works which use sound as both their medium and their subject, including installations, sculptural, electroacoustic and audience interactive pieces.

• Beacons by Emily Peasgood
• Down Gone by Una Lee
• Earthquake Mass Re-Imagined by Kathy Hinde
• The Mute Still Air by Ed Carter
• The Sound Voice Project: Paul, I Left My Voice Behind And Tanja by Hannah Conway

Stage Works: Works composed for the stage, including opera, dance and musical theatre.

• Dante composed by Thomas Adès
• Opsnizing Dad composed by John Wallace
• Syllable composed by Edward Jessen
• The Shackled King composed by John Casken
• Witch composed by Freya Waley-Cohen

Freya Waley-Cohen is nominated in the Stage Work category for her song cycle, Witch ©Patrick Allan

This year’s nominated works have been premiered to UK audiences in commercial recordings, live streams, concert performances and a range of other media between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022. Commissioners of nominated works include orchestras such as Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and London Sinfonietta, as well as individuals such as soprano Juliet Fraser and festivals such as BBC Proms and Oxford Lieder Festival.

Three gifts of the Academy will also be awarded on the night; the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Works Collection (presented in association with the Music Publishers Association), the Ivor Novello Award for Innovation (supported by the Musicians’ Union) and the Academy Fellowship, designed to recognize excellence and impact in music creation.

This year’s awards will include 46% first-time nominees and are supported by PRS for Music. CEO Andrea Czapary Martin, said: ‘It is encouraging to see that almost 50% of those nominated are first time nominees, highlighting the flourishing creative talent we have in the UK. This is exactly why we are proud to have invested and supported the awards from the beginning and continue to pledge our support as the awards go beyond their 20^th anniversary.’