Oram Award Winners announced On BBC Radio 3 Late Junction

The winners are: Ain Bailey, Andie Brown, Cee Haines (CHAINES), Natalie Sharp (Lone Taxidermist), Nwando Ebizie (Lady Vendredi) and Steph Horak (SheIsRevolting)

Awards ceremony taking place at Kings Place, London on Saturday 15th June

Live performances by Klein, Loraine James, Lady Vendredi and Sally Golding, DJ set by Beatrice Dillon

• Third annual award presentation to recognise talented music creators innovating in music, sound and related technologies
• Awards ceremony to take place on Saturday 15th June at Kings Place London, as part of Venus Unwrapped, hosted by Tina Edwards (Worldwide FM) and awards presented by Matthew Herbert (composer and director of The New BBC Radiophonic Workshop)
• The six winners are Ain Bailey, Andie Brown, Cee Haines (CHAINES), Natalie Sharp, Nwando Ebizie (Lady Vendredi) and Steph Horak (SheIsRevolting)
• Winners to receive development bursaries from PRS Foundation
• Expanded programme in 2019 with a series of daytime events including workshops and talks hosted by BBC Research & Development and Goldsmiths, University of London and previous Oram Award winners.
• Light and Sound installation – Chirp & Drift by 2017 Oram winner Kathy Hinde will be free and open to the public all afternoon
• DJ set by Beatrice Dillon and live performances by Oram Awards winner Lady Vendredi and former Oram Awards winners Klein, Loraine James and Sally Golding.

The Oram Awards 2019 is the third annual event celebrating innovation in music, sound and related technologies by the next generation of forward thinking artists – an initiative by PRS Foundation, the UK’s leading charitable funder of new music and talent development, in partnership with The New BBC Radiophonic Workshop. This forms part of Venus Unwrapped, Kings Place’s flagship series.

Last evening (Wednesday 12th June) BBC Radio 3 Late Junction, hosted by Verity Sharp announced the winners live on air: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0005skt

Ain Bailey is a sound artist and DJ. Her practice involves an exploration of sonic autobiographies, architectural acoustics, performance, as well as collaborations with performance and visual artists, such as Sonia Boyce and Jimmy Robert.

Andie Brown began performing and recording as a solo artist in 2007 under the name These Feathers Have Plumes. Experimenting with glass and electronics, Andie has created what she terms an “augmented glass harp” and in recent years her work has focused on sound installation.

Cee Haines is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who writes surreal and fantastical electro-acoustic music under the moniker CHAINES. Their album, ‘The King’, was met with critical acclaim (The Wire Magazine, FACT Magazine), and their works for the London Contemporary Orchestra have been premiered at major venues including The Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms, 2018).

Natalie Sharp is a 360 artist from Cumbria at the forefront of what The Quietus described as ‘New Weird Britain’. As Lone Taxidermist, her practice focuses on presenting live music in non-conventional settings, challenging existing frameworks and expectations. Exploring issues around gender and sexuality, her practice pushes at the parameters of the live environment

Nwando Ebizie has been carving out her own particular strand of Afrofuturism as Lady Vendredi.
She is a multidisciplinary artist with an international focus whose work converges around performance art personas, experimental theatre, neuroscience, music and African diasporic ritualistic dance.

Steph Horak is a sound and video artist. She designs systems for voice and composition, and performs on the improvisation circuit. She produces experimental pop music under the name SheIsRevolting. She focuses on error, malfunction and bad programming to create polyrhythmic sonic washes against a backdrop of homemade videos.

From the six winners, two winners will receive special commendations and development bursaries of £1,500 each with 4 winners receiving development bursaries of £500 from PRS Foundation. Full details will be announced at The Oram Awards 2019 which will take place on Saturday 15th June at Kings Place, London.

This year sees an expanded programme with a series of daytime events including workshops and installations hosted by BBC Research & Development, Goldsmiths, University of London and previous Oram Award winners. The awards ceremony will take place 6pm-7.15pm, hosted by Worldwide FM’s Tina Edwards with the awards being presented by the Director of The New Radiophonic Workshop, Matthew Herbert and performances by Sally Golding and Lady Vendredi.  An evening event follows headlined by former Oram Awards winners Klein and Loraine James with a dj set from Beatrice Dillon.

The full timetable of the event can be found at https://www.oramawards.com

Named after Daphne Oram, one of the founding members of the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the awards hope to build on her legacy. Daphne worked at the workshop with others including Delia Derbyshire, Glynis Jones, Jenyth Worsley, Maddalena Fagandini and Elizabeth Parker, creating music for the distant future, the distant past and inside the mind.  She played a vital role in establishing women at the forefront of innovation, in newly emerging audio technologies, in the UK and around the world. Fast forward to 2019 and whilst there are many women innovating in music and sound, their work and their voices often struggle to be heard and we’re missing the opportunity to celebrate role models for the next generation.

The Oram Awards 2019 will take place across four rooms on Level -2 at Kings Place, Saturday June 15th

The Oram Awards are targeted at the next generation of innovative women, trans and non-binary artists in music and sound rather than established names.  The recipients of the award in 2018 were Georgia Rodgers, Loraine James, Francine Perry, Hannah Jones and Aja Ireland with the presentation ceremony taking place at BlueDot Festival at Jodrell Bank Telescope, Cheshire. 2017 saw Ewa Justka, Klein, Claire M Singer, Elvin Brandhi, Kathy Hinde, Mary Stark, Sally Golding and Shelly Knots picking up awards at the inaugural event at Turner Contemporary, Margate. Klein has gone on to critical acclaim in the likes of Pitchfork, The Fader and The Wire, and Ewa’s talent creating innovative electronic instruments has been featured in Resident Advisor and Electronic Beats amongst others. More info on the winners can be found at: www.oramawards.com

QUOTES

STEPH HORAK (SheIsRevolting)

“Thanks to the Daphne Oram Trust, PRS [Foundation] and the reviewers for the support and recognition. It is brilliant to see so many womxn flourishing in the electronic/experimental music scene as a consequence of such dedicated initiatives. I like to think that people like Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire were not dismayed at the lack of formal recognition they received, because they were just busy getting on with the job…they were so enthralled by the possibilities of the technology around them that they didn’t stop to consider how their gender might prevent them from accessing those research spaces. This is probably not true. We owe them a debt for treading that path – the best contribution I can make today is to continue to produce and be visible. This support makes that possible, thank you so much.”

NATALIE SHARP (Lone Taxidermist)

“I’ve never won an award before , this one especially means so much as it recognises women who are challenging the electronic status quo. I am infinitely grateful and optimistic about what the future may bring.”

CEE HAINES (CHAINES)

“It’s great to be acknowledged as a non-binary person winning an Oram award. Given the state of transgender healthcare in the UK, and subsequent financial pressure of pursuing private treatment, it often feels like I’m having to choose between my health and my musical career. Winning an award gives me hope that I can still move forward musically, even under that pressure.”

ANDIE BROWN

“It is wonderful to have the recognition and support of The Oram Awards which I hope will allow me to draw attention to newer and lesser known strands of my practice in working with glass and electronics in sculptural sound installation. I am really excited to put the bursary towards a new collaboration with a glass studio to create pieces for a new installation.”

AIN BAILEY

“As an older queer Black woman, somewhat ‘late’ to sound art life, it’s a genuine pleasure to be recognised by The Oram Awards for not only the work that I am doing, but those who I am working with. The bonus that comes with the recognition is that it will probably lead to more work in the short term, and hopefully contribute to the development of a sustained practice.”

NWANDO EBIZIE (Lady Vendredi)

“It feels amazing to follow in the footsteps of previous years winners and all the electronic pioneers who have gone before us. Daphne Oram is such an inspiration to me – this award will just spurn me on to keep on experimenting and pushing boundaries.”