Award Nominations for RNCM Composers

Postgraduate composer Lucy Pankhurst and alumna Sally Beamish have both been nominated for a 2014 British Composer Award.

Lucy, currently working towards a PhD in Composition, will compete in the Wind Band or Brass Band category with Throwfen Raconteurs, and Sally, who graduated in 1974, in the Vocal category with Flodden.

Lucy and Sally, both previous British Composer Awards winners, are two of 33 to be nominated this year, sitting alongside RMCM graduates and RNCM Fellows Sir Harrison Birtwistle and John McCabe. Sir Harrison and John are the only composers to have works nominated in two categories: Sir Harrison in the Vocal and Choral sections for Songs from the Same Earth and The Moth Requiem, and John in the Orchestral and Solo/Duo sections for Joybox and Sonata after William Byrd’s Haec Dies.

Julia Haferkorn and Ed McKeon, Artistic Directors of the British Composer Awards, said: ‘This year’s Awards show how lively, curious and attuned composers are across the UK’s new music scenes. We’re particularly pleased at the number of composers represented on the shortlist for the first time. The musical works cover a wide spectrum – there’s truly music there for all open-eared listeners. We wouldn’t expect people to like and admire everything: that’s precisely why we rely on the generosity of so many composers, musicians and promoters from all over the country to come together on panels to make these difficult choices. So whether you’re moved or not by any particular work, we hope you will spend time giving all the works a hearing.’

The British Composer Awards are presented by BASCA and sponsored by PRS for Music. BBC Radio 3 will broadcast the awards on Hear and Now at 10pm on Saturday 6 December, with the chance to hear many of the shortlisted pieces from approximately 9.30-10pm, Monday 24 to Friday 28 November.

22 October 2014