Composer John Casken wins RMA Tippett Medal

Composer John Casken has been announced as winner of the Royal Musical Association’s inaugural 2020 Tippett Medal for his work The Shackled King, a drama based on Shakespeare’s King Lear.

The Shackled King explores Lear’s estrangement from and reconciliation with his daughter Cordelia. Sir John Tomlinson takes the lead role in this new drama incorporating Shakespeare’s text in the form of speech, sprechstimme and singing.

Casken said: ‘Tippett was a giant composer of our time and to have his name now linked to my work The Shackled King means so much to me. Writing for Sir John Tomlinson as the King was a great privilege, and working with him, Rozanna Madylus (Cordelia), and the ensemble Counterpoise was truly inspirational.’

Born in July 1949, Casken studied at the University of Birmingham and the Academy of Music in Warsaw and was Composer-in Association with Northern Sinfonia from 1990 to 2001. He won the 1990 Britten Award for Composition with his first opera Golem, and the Prince Pierre de Monaco Prize in 1993 with his work Still Mine. Casken also received the British Composer Award (Vocal Category) in 2009 and was shortlisted for another in 2015 with his oboe concerto Apollinaire’s Bird.

The RMA was founded as the Musical Association in 1874 by Sir John Stainer, with a mission to encourage and publish information on subjects connected to music. The organisation became the Royal Musical Association in 1944 by command of King George VI.

You can find out more about John Casken at his website.

You can find out more about the Royal Musical Association here.