Making Music announces 2022 award winners 

Leisure time music association, Making Music announced the winners of its 2022 awards at an online awards ceremony held last night. Prizes for each category included promotion to Making Music members and inclusion on the association’s SoundCloud as well as financial support for future projects and commissions.

Held annually, the awards were created in 2020 to celebrate the organisation’s 3,900 member groups and the individuals who support them. All but one of the categories were judged by a panel of music sector experts, with the ‘group hero’ award decided by online public vote.

Making Music president Debbie Wiseman OBE, who hosted the online awards ceremony, said: ‘It was a pleasure to listen to such a diverse selection of music, and it was a tremendously difficult decision to name a winner in each category, because the quality of the music making, as in previous years, continues to be of the highest standard.’ 

A judging panel including Making Music chair Dorothy Wilson MBE, Knebworth Community Chorus music director Derek Harrison and English National Opera music director Martyn Brabbins chose Chris Parsons to receive the ‘best music director’ award for his work with Bury St Edmunds Friendly Orchestra. Also a trumpeter and teacher, Parsons directs a number of community ensembles and is part of professional baroque ensemble, Eboracum Baroque. 

The winner of the ‘best music creator for leisure-time music group’ award is London-based composer Nathan James Dearden, who received the award for his 2021 commission for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, i breathe.

The panel for this award also chose the recipient of the ‘best arranger’ award. Led by Wiseman, the panel also included Wilson, Kensington Symphony Orchestra music director Russell Keable and Sally Groves MBE, former creative director of Schott Music. Michael Betteridge was named ‘best arranger for leisure-time music group’ in recognition of his arrangement of Joni Mitchell’s Urge for Going, for Manchester-based LGBTQ+ low-voice choir The Sunday Boys. 

The Sunday Boys also won the award for best project with a focus on new music for their work with the inaugural Corridor of Light Festival in Manchester during which they commissioned and performed three works by LGBTQ+ composers. In addition to Dorothy Wilson MBE, the panel for this award also included Young Voices director of learning & events Clare Edwards, Creative Scotland music officer Emma Campbell and Graeme Wilson, music director of the Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society.

The ‘group hero’ award, which was decided by public vote, was given to the Bradford Festival Choral Society team for their work producing two performances in a digital lockdown collaboration with Bradford Friendship Choir. You can find the nominees shortlist here.