Announcing 10 new Composers’ Fund grantees

Ten of the UK’s most talented composers will be supported through the ground breaking Composers’ Fund to develop their work in the UK and overseas.

In this second round of funding since The Composers’ Fund launch in 2016, the latest 10 composers receiving support are:

• Philip Cashian – Opportunity to write a substantial work for a large, conducted mixed ensemble.
• Mark Bowden – Childcare cover to allow to create a new several mid to large-scale projects over the next two years. Forthcoming projects include a new multi-movement work for clarinet and piano; a concerto for saxophone and large ensemble; and a full-scale opera.
• Charlotte Bray – To record and release the second CD of music, a disc of chamber works spanning 12 years which demonstrates the diversity and richness of her language. Part of the grant will be used to finance a launch concert for the new recording.
• Sadie Harrison – Time off from teaching to write substantial commissions as the first Composer-in-Residence to the Keunstler ‘Bei Wu’ Sculpture Park, Berlin.
• Arlene Sierra – Funding to help complete a new recording project with Bridge Records, comprised of chamber works for duos and trios spanning 16 years, the earliest commission, the piano duo of Risk and Memory (1997) to two of the most recent commissions from 2013.
• Julian Anderson – High Quality broadcast and archive recordings have been made of his works ‘Heaven is Shy of Earth’ and ‘The Comedy of Change’, by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta respectively. Funding will allow the recordings to be licensed for a full release on CD, download and streaming so that they can be heard by the widest audience possible.
• Naomi Pinnock – To research and compose her first significant orchestral piece to be premiered at the Tectonics Festival 2018 in Glasgow
• Emily Howard – Funding to complete her first full-scale chamber opera ‘To See The Invisible’, an adaption of a short sci-fi story by American writer Robert Silverberg. which will receive its world premiere at Aldeburgh Festival 2018.
• Raymond Yiu – To fund full licensing of the recordings made by the BBC of his most representative orchestral works to-date. These works have already helped the composer gain wider recognition in the UK and internationally. Licensing these recordings will allow the works to be made available to a wider audience.
• Roberto David Rusconi – Funding to support part of the commission fee in the creation of work KIRKE, a 60 minute music, dance, and theatre work.

The Composers’ Fund was created following PRS Foundation’s research in 2014 exploring the challenges composers meet when striving to steer the next stages of their careers. The research highlighted that composers faced limited access to funding, low commission fees, lack of any support structure, pressurised working conditions and for established and mid-career composers in particular, a decrease in commissioning opportunities.

The fund, was launched by PRS Foundation at City Hall, London in April 2016 with additional support from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.  It aims to support the creative and professional development of talented composers by offering direct access to funding at pivotal stages in their careers. The fund offers £150,000 annually to support composers and enable them to realise projects and ambitions that may not be possible through traditional commissioning models.