ORA Singers launch new composer development initiative
Florence Lockheart
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Applications for the scheme open today, with five chosen composers offered the chance to write for the ensemble
The ORA Singers have this week announced a new Graduate Composers’ Showcase initiative. The programme is designed to support graduating composers’ careers, offering them professional development support as well as a commission to write a piece for the ensemble.
Founded in 2016 by Suzi Digby with the aim of commissioning 100 composers in 10 years, the ORA Singers have so far commissioned 64 composers and are now looking for five graduates who are pursuing a career in composition. The scheme is open to graduates with a degree in any subject who have graduated from any UK University or Conservatoire no earlier than 2021. Applications for the scheme open today (21 November), with submissions accepted until 22 January 2024.
Digby said: ‘I founded ORA Singers with the belief that we are in a second Golden Age of choral music, reflecting that of the Renaissance… As we quickly became the leading commissioners of choral music, we recognised the importance of supporting future generations. Hence, we created our Young Composers' scheme. Now, in 2023, we are thrilled that the scheme has already mentored 140 students from across the UK and we’re already seeing the impact it's having in the UK’s State Education sector. With both our commissioning drive and our Young Composers' schemes, we have identified and narrowed the gap in support between those in education and those in the profession. Our new Graduate Composers' Showcase plugs that gap for early-career composers and completes our 'Composers' Pathway' of support for composers in all stages of their careers. This has been an organic development in the story of ORA. I'm incredibly excited to see the effects unfold.’
The ORA Singers’ chosen Graduate Composers will receive consultation sessions with Digby as well as a £1,000 commission to write a new choral piece for ORA’s full complement of 18 professional singers. The works will receive their world premiere at the Singers’ concert at Royal Welsh College of Music on 28 September 2024. Each composer will also receive a video recording of their piece for their portfolios.
The Graduate Composer Showcase will operate alongside the Singers’ fifth Young Composers’ Programme, which will see 10 young composers receive 10 hours of free one-to-one mentoring with a professional composer, offering developmental support as well as guiding them through the process of writing a new choral piece which will be performed (and recorded) in front of a live audience and panel of industry experts before scheme winners are chosen.
The ORA Singers will also offer free online tuition for 40 chosen apprentices through a series of workshops led by composer Rory Wainwright Johnston. Applications for the Young Composer and Apprenticeship scheme also open today and will close on 5 February 2024.
