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National Centre for Early Music Composers' Award 2009: Announcement of the short list  and first round winners (BK)


Six talented young composers from across the UK were short-listed to take part in the prestigious 2009 NCEM Composers Award in York on Thursday 14th May. This is the first year of the National Centre for Early Music’s new partnership with BBC Radio 3 and The Tallis Scholars,  which will see the winning pieces, for four part a cappella choir, receive the honour of being premiered by The Tallis Scholars at the opening concert of the York Early Music Festival on 10th July 2009 in York Minster. Highlights from the concert, including the winning composition, will be broadcast on the BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show on the 25th July. The competition saw over 50 entrants from up and down the country, with the youngest aged 11 years old.

The short-listed composers were: Michael Perrett (20yrs), from Gosport, Hampshire, currently studying at the RNCM; William Blake (20yrs) from Beckenham, Kent, studying at Queens College, Oxford; Paul Edis (23yrs) from Durham; Thomas Neal (18yrs) from Stockton on Tees; Tom Harrold (17yrs) from Glasgow and Elizabeth Edwards (16yrs) from Camberley in Surrey. All six worked with the composer Christopher Fox on Thursday 14th May prior to a public performance of their work by York’s own Ebor Singers in the evening at the NCEM. The  competition was judged by Peter Phillips, Director of The Tallis Scholars, Chris Wines, Senior Music Producer with BBC Radio 3 and Delma Tomlin, Director of the NCEM. The winning pieces -  by  Elizabeth Edwards and  Michael Perrett - were announced at an awards ceremony at the end of this concert.

Elizabeth Edwards' piece is called Arise with text from Isaiah chapter 60 - Arise! Shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Elizabeth is from Camberley, Surrey, attends Farnborough Hill School in Hampshire where she is studying for her GCSEs. She began playing the cello aged 4 and is now Principal Cello with the Surrey County Youth Orchestra.  In October 2008 she won the Surrey Heath Young Musician Competition and in Easter 2009 she was invited to play with the Youth Orchestra of the Middle East in Dubai.  She attends Colourstrings Saturday Music School in South London, where she learns cello with Miguel Calvo and piano with Shay Loya. She also studies singing with Roy Rashbrook and composition with the Guildford-based composer, Will Todd.  At school, Elizabeth plays bass recorder in the recorder consort, string bass in the swing band and sings in the senior choir.  Elizabeth has won a place as a music specialist at Wells Cathedral School and will begin her A level studies there in September 2009.

Michael Perrett's piece, entitled God, is a setting of a minstrel's song from Isaac Rosenberg's verse-play Moses, published in 1916. A similarly uncomfortable image of the deity reappears in Rosenberg's poem God of the same year. The piece is generally meditative, though the tenor/bass duet towards the end disturbs the calm somewhat. Born in Hampshire in 1988, Michael is a student at the Royal Northern College of Music, studying clarinet at the Royal Northern College of Music with Professor Linda Merrick. He began playing the clarinet at a young age and was a chorister in the local parish church. A committed performer of contemporary music, Michael has recently given performances of Carter, Birtwistle and Holt. Michael's formal study of composition began only recently and he now studies privately with Matthew Sergeant. He hopes to study composition at postgraduate level.

All of the short-listed pieces were recorded by University of York music technology students and, as part of the comprehensive development programme behind the Award, visitors to the NCEM website will be able to listen to them there. Delma Tomlin, director of the NCEM and one of the panel of judges for the Award, says: “We were absolutely delighted to see so many entries from all over the UK and clearly have something very positive to build on in the future.  Our youngest composer was just 11 and whilst he was not short-listed, we were particularly pleased to see such positive enthusiasm.  So much so that we have already agreed the Award will go ahead in 2010 and that the experience would be enhanced by offering a commissioned set text."

The National Centre for Early Music is administered by the York Early Music Foundation and funded by Arts Council England, Yorkshire. The NCEM web site is: www.ncem.co.uk and  contains further details of the Composers' Award. John Leeman will review The Tallis Scholar's performances of the winning pieces on July 10th for Seen and Heard.

Bill Kenny


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