British Composer Awards 10th Anniversary Concert

Discover the artistry of some of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary composers as BASCA mark the 10th Anniversary of the British Composer Awards with a concert at the Purcell Room.

The programme – on Wednesday 5 December - features eleven works from the Awards’ history, performed by the joint forces of leading contemporary music exponents, Endymion and the Vasari Singers.

The thought-provoking programme features choral and chamber works that have won British Composer Awards since the founding of the Awards in 2003.  Earliest of the Award winners is Gabriel Jackson’s O Doctor Optime, winner of the Liturgical Award in 2003, and most recent is Anthony Payne’s String Quartet No. 2 which won last year’s Chamber Award. 

2008 proved to be a bumper year, with four of the winning works represented in the programme:  Michael Zev Gordon’s This Night (Choral Award); James MacMillan’s The Canticle of Zachariah and Data est mihi omnis potestas (Liturgical Award); Judith Bingham’s Fantasia (Instrumental Solo/Duo Award); and Joe Cutler’s Folk Music (Chamber Award).  In the words of the Guardian, Folk Music which was inspired by the traditional music of the Ukraine and Poland “...allows for knee-jiggling joy and mind-buzzing excitement as the ear follows the intricate interweaving of ideas”. 

Sir John Tavener and Sir Harrison Birtwistle, who have been nominated on numerous occasions are represented by Ex Maria Virgine (Liturgical Award 2009) and Crowd (Instrumental Solo/Duo Award 2007) respectively; Ruth Byrchmore by A Birthday (Liturgical Award 2005); Tarik O’Regan Threshold of Night (Liturgical Award 2007); and Gary Carpenter by Azaleas, winner of the Chamber Award 2006.

BASCA Chairman Sarah Rodgers says, “We are immensely proud of the British Composer Awards.  In a short span of years, they have come to represent a spectrum of the diversity and excellence that is the best of contemporary classical and jazz composition in the British Isles. The past 10 years have unveiled a new generation of composers of breath-taking vitality and originality.  Whilst the British Composer Awards can continue to champion today’s composers and bring light to new talent, BASCA will continue to devote resources to making sure that composers are recognised and celebrated.”

The British Composers Awards 10th Anniversary Concert has been generously supported by the RVW Trust.

British Composer Awards 10th Anniversary Concert

Wednesday 5 December at 7.45pm
Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre

Judith Bingham Fantasia
Gabriel Jackson O Doctor Optime
Sir John Tavener Ex Maria Virgine: Verbum caro and Rocking
James MacMillan The Canticle of Zachariah and Data est mihi omnis potestas
Sir Harrison Birtwistle Crowd
Anthony Payne String Quartet No.2
Ruth Byrchmore A Birthday
Michael Zev Gordon This Night
Tarik O'Regan Threshold of Night
Gary Carpenter Azaleas
Joe Cutler Folk Music

Performed by
Endymion: Philip Venables, director
Vasari Singers: Jeremy Backhouse, conductor

Tickets: £15 (limited concessions available)

Box Office: 0844 847 9910
Online: www.southbankcentre.co.uk