Nominees for 2023 Ivors Classical Awards revealed

The Ivors Academy has today announced the 34 composers who have been nominated for an Ivor Novello Award as part of The Ivors Classical Awards 2023. The winners of each of the 11 awards will be revealed on 14 November at London’s BFI Southbank in the Academy’s first ceremony under the awards’ new name.

Hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenters Hannah Peel and Tom Service, the awards ceremony will see winners announced in eight categories as well as three Gift of the Academy award winners. The awards will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show and on BBC Sounds the following Saturday.

Ivors Academy chair Tom Gray said: ‘The Ivors Classical Awards celebrate the very best new compositions and this year's nominations are no exception. From first-time nominees to Ivor Novello Award winning composers, the shortlist showcases a remarkable diversity of talent and creativity, reflecting the vibrancy and innovation of contemporary classical music. Judged by composers from The Ivors Academy, each Ivor Novello Award symbolises the respect and appreciation music creators have for each other.’

Almost half of the shortlist are first-time nominees, including Jasdeep Singh Degun, Simon Knighton, Angela Elizabeth Slater and Dobrinka Tabakova, and three composers – Brett Dean (pictured), Brian Irvine and Hannah Kendall – have each received two nominations.

You can find a full list of the nominees for this year’s awards below:

Best chamber ensemble composition

• Disco! Disco! Good! Good? by Jasper Dommett
• Even Sweetness Can Scratch The Throat by Hannah Kendall
• Növények by Thomas Adés
• Staggered Nocturne by Luke Bedford
• Why Do You Grieve by William Marsey

Best choral composition

• Kishtatos | קישתתוס by Omri Kochavi
• Landscape by Naomi Pinnock
• Sol by Ben Nobuto

Best community and participation composition in association with ABRSM

• Estuary Sound Ark by Matthew Herbert
• Heroes by Harry Castle
• It Takes A City by Toby Young
• Swarm Fanfares by Dobrinka Tabakova
• Together And Apart by Ned Bigham

Best large ensemble composition

• Antigone: Pure In Her Crime by Athanasia Kontou
• Ilolli-Pop by Alex Paxton
• Ka by Bushra El-Turk
• Shouting Forever Into The Receiver by Hannah Kendall
• Through The Fading Hour by Angela Elizabeth Slater

Best orchestral composition

• Archora by Anna Thorvaldsdottir
• Cello Concerto by Brett Dean
• Elliptics by Emily Howard
• In This Brief Moment by Brett Dean
• Sound Sculpture No. 7 by Simon Knighton

Best small chamber composition

• Answer Machine Tape, 1987 by Philip Venables
• Comme l’Espoir by Josephine Stephenson
• Crow Rotations by Larry Goves
• Silberblau by Matthew Grouse
• The Book Of Sediments by Newton Armstrong

Best sound art

• Lol by Olivia Louvel - a site-specific sonic intervention delivered through the public address system of Middlesbrough’s CCTV surveillance network, reflecting the current state of political affairs in Britain, produced with Sound Art Brighton
• Machair by Duncan MacLeod - acousmatic soundwalk exploring the traditions and ecology of Uist’s machair on the Isle of Benbecula
• Rites For Crossing Water by Hugh Crewdson Jones and Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian - outdoor installation, augmented reality book and EP built around instructional texts, imagined as folklore for the future

Best stage works

• Least Like The Other: Searching For Rosemary Kennedy by Brian Irvine
• Like Water For Chocolate by Joby Talbot
• Orpheus by Jasdeep Singh Degun
• The Scorched Earth Trilogy by Brian Irvine
• Violet by Tom Coult

A jury of 40 composer judges took part this year, nominating between three and five works for each category in an anonymous process, which sees all identifying information removed from any materials seen by judges. One recipient of the Gift of the Academy Award has already been revealed:  composer and conductor John Rutter CBE will receive the Academy’s highest honour, the Academy Fellowship. The recipients of the Outstanding Works Collection and Innovation awards will be revealed next month.