Presto Music is now the exclusive streaming partner for The Ivors! The Ivors Classical Awards took place yesterday evening in London: thirty-six composers were nominated for awards across eight categories, all celebrating classical music and sound art. The eight categories are judged anonymously, with all identifying information removed from all entered materials seen by the judges. A jury of forty-two composer judges from The Ivors Academy considered over three hundred and sixty works entered for this year’s Awards, resulting in thirty nine nominated works in the shortlist. You can find the winners of the three Gift of the Academy awards, as well as a full list of nominees and winners below.
Gift of the Academy Award Winners
Award winner: Errollyn Wallen
The highest honour bestowed by the Academy, Errollyn Wallen has been awarded the fellowship in recognition of her outstanding contribution to contemporary classical music. We recently spoke with Errollyn about her career and winning the Academy Followship award. You can read the full interview here. If you are a subscriber to our streaming service, you can also listen to our curated playlist of some of Errollyn's work here.
Winner: Roxanna Panufnik
Acknowledging her exceptional body of work, Roxanna Panufnik is the winner of the Outstanding Works Collection award. We recently spoke to Roxanna about her career as a composer, you can read the full interview here. If you are a subscriber to our streaming service, you can also listen to our curated playlist of Roxanna's work here.
Winner: Gavin Bryars
The 2024 Innovation Award was awarded to English composer and double bassist Gavin Bryars. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, avant-garde, and experimental music.If you are a subscriber to our streaming service, you can also lIsten to our curated playlist of some of Gavin's work here.
Best Chamber Ensemble Composition:
Celebrating classical works composed for four to eighteen instruments, and for one instrument or voice per part.
Mitternachtslied (Julian Anderson): for soprano and ensemble
Songs of Nadia Anjuman (Richard Blackford): for soprano and string orchestra
The Hearing Trumpet (Hilda Paredes): for flute, oboe, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, percussion and strings
[WINNER] TOMB! (Laurence Osborn): for strings, percussion and piano
Undone (Soosan Lolavar): for solo de-tuned violin and string ensemble
Best Choral Composition:
Celebrating classical works specifically composed for voices; either a capella or accompanied.
Batter my Heart (Joanna Marsh): for SSAATTBB choir
May Song (Lawrence Dunn): for 6 voices and fixed media
[WINNER] The City, Full of People (Cassandra Miller): for mixed choir of 16 singers
Best Community and Particiation Composition:
Celebrating works composed for voluntary, amateur or youth performers and/or community engagement. In association with ABRSM.
14 Weeks (Jane Stanley): for SATB chorus
[WINNER] A Children's Guide to Anarchy (An Easterhouse Children's Manifesto) (Brian Irvine): for ensemble and singers
Fly/Work/Grow (Hannah Conway): for amateur child and adult vocal soloists, operatic soprano, pro-vocalist, recorded speech, violin, cello and piano
In Your Hands (Amy Bryce): for youth voices: two SATB choirs with additional upper voices, piano and percussion
Tuxedo: Dust Bowl #3 (Hannah Kendall): for massed ensemble of harmonicas and optional SATB voices
Best Large Ensemble Composition
Celebrating classical works composed for up to thirty-six players.
Pound of Cure (Ryan Latimer): for string orchestra
[WINNER] The Horse (Matthew Herbert): for orchestra, horse skeleton and electronics
The Singing Tree (Christian Mason): for five solo voices, children’s choir and ensemble
The Stones in the River By Our Camp in the Forest/ The Space on the Ground Where We Lay (Rufus Isabel Elliot): for string ensemble
Viola Concerto ‘Three Goddesses’ (Edward Gregson): for viola and string orchestra
Best Orchestral Composition:
Celebrating large symphonic works, including works for choir and orchestra. In association with Dorico
Echoes (Julian Anderson): for solo baritone, chorus and orchestra
[WINNER] Horn Concerto (Gavin Higgins): for horn and orchestra
I Cannot Love Without Trembling (Cassandra Miller): for viola and orchestra
In Spe Contra Spem (Brett Dean): for two sopranos and orchestra
Mosaics (Colin Matthews): for orchestra
Best Small Chamber Composition:
Celebrating classical works composed for one to three instruments, and for one instrument or voice per part.
Byoyomi (Rūta Vitkauskaitė): for clarinet and string quartet
English Dancing Master (Leo Chadburn): for pre-recorded voices and string quartet
Lakes, Mists, Bats, Daggers, and Fountains (Laurence Osborn): for string quartet
[WINNER] The Mouth (Rebecca Saunders): for soprano and tape
Tiding II (Silentium) (Lisa Illean): for soprano saxophone, percussion, piano and electronics
Best Sound Art
Celebrating distinctive sound compositions that exist in hybrid relation to other artforms, environments or situations.
A Ladder is Not the Only Kind of Time (Benjamin Tassie): three water-powered musical instruments installed in the historic Rivelin Valley in Sheffield accompanied by film, field-recording and live performance to explore ideas of heritage, place, and our changing relationship with the landscape
[WINNER] Each Tiny Drop (Dan Jones): sonic accompaniment to Risham Syed’s interactive water ritual on the banks of the River Medlock commissioned by Factory International to open the Manchester International Festival and celebrate connections between Manchester and Pakistan
Orasaigh (Duncan MacLeod): acousmatic binaural soundwalk composition inspired by the landscape around the tidal island of Orasaigh, located on the coast of South Uist at Boisdale
Po(e)sies (Una Lee): live performance work for close-harmony quartet and spoken voice, reincarnating the Korean ancient poetry form 'Hyangga'
The Bird That Never Flew (Hanna Tuulikki): place-responsive performance exploring Glasgow Cathedral's roots in ornithological entanglements and to raise the alarm for critically endangered birds
Best Stage Work Composition:
Celebrating works composed for the stage, including opera, dance and musical theatre.
Calls To This Number Are Being Diverted (Matthew Grouse): music theatre for two soloists and an ensemble of three
Itch (Jonathan Dove): opera for a cast of eight singers and twelve players
Picture a Day Like This (George Benjamin): opera for a cast of five singers and twenty one players
The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions (Philip Venables): music theatre for fifteen mixed performers
[WINNER] Woman at Point Zero (Bushra El-Turk): opera for two voices, ancient folk instruments and pre-recorded audio samples
Hallelujah Amen (Oliver Leith): for mixed voices
