UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 07 DECEMBER 2020
The winners of the Ivor Novello Composer Awards were announced on BBC Radio 3 last week during an exclusive live broadcast. BMus student Daniel Fardon and BMus Jazz alumnus Charlie Bates were honoured with awards, which celebrate exceptional new works by composers writing for classical, jazz and sound art.
The high-profile awards were presented to 11 composers for categories covering classical, jazz and sound art compositions, in addition to three 'Gift of The Academy' awards.
The Small Chamber Award went to Daniel for 'Six Movements', a string quartet commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and Wigmore Hall, which was premiered by the Bloomsbury Quartet.
Each of the six movements explores a collection of contrasting characters, moods and expressions, which the judges felt resulted in "a finely-crafted work with a wonderful arc across the whole piece and beautiful sounds and harmonies."
The Jazz Composition for Large Ensemble award went to Charlie for ‘Crepuscule’, which premiered last year with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. With this composition Charlie aimed to capture “the feeling of facing oncoming darkness, while clinging to the light that remains.”
The judges thought the piece was “arresting and captivating from the start. Its dramatic developments are strong, clear and well applied throughout.”
Chair of The Ivors Academy’s Awards Committee Gary Carpenter said: “My heartfelt congratulations go to all the winners, nominees and recipients of Gift of the Academy awards. An Ivor Novello Award represents innovation, quality, creativity, determination and beauty through composition and music creation. But most of all it represents the esteem that composers and music creators hold for each other.”