Eight exciting new music projects supported to tour across the UK and Republic of Ireland through PRS Foundation’s Beyond Borders

UK and Ireland-based organisations, music groups and composers will receive funding through the co-commissioning and touring programme Beyond Borders. The exciting cross-border projects are:

• Ronan Guilfoyle and Improvised Music Company presents Restless Islands
  Extended suite for jazz sextet exploring the atmosphere and interconnected events that shaped Britain and Ireland in the first three decades of the 20th Century.
• Laura Bowler and Sound Festival presents Gaia
  An innovative touring programme of new works by female UK composers for voice and flute, performed by Ruth Morley (flute) and Laura Bowler (composer/soprano).
• Benjamin Dwyer and Chapter (Cardiff) presents Sacrum Profanum
  A multi-media work exploring themes inspired by Sheela-na-gig stone carvings , led by Irish composer Ben Dwyer that combines contemporary music with traditional Irish forms.
• John McLeod and Live Music Now Scotland present Songs from Above and Below
  Songs from Above and Below by John McLeod, suite of 6 voice/piano songs reflecting on the mining communities of Central Scotland and South Wales.
• Paul Dunlea and New Irish Jazz Orchestra present Four Corners
  A tour premiering a newly composed suite by Paul Dunlea, performed by a band of world class jazzmusicians from four corners of the British Isles.
• Andy Ingamells and Third Ear Music present This is About
  A theatrical performance combining the ancient Gaelic sport of Hurling with the sounds of contemporary music, putting the audience at the heart of the action.
• Abel Selaocoe and Manchester Collective present Manchester Collective: 19/20 UK Tour
  Audience development in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, through new music performance, commissioning, workshops, and touring work.
• Phoebe Collings-James and AC Projects/ Counterflows presents DE-VAST-ATION & SABOT-AGE/wasteman
  AC Projects’ flagship festival Counterflows with Oto Projects and MovingOnMusic will commission a multidisciplinary work by Last Yearz Interesting Negro & Phoebe Collings-James.

Beyond Borders was established in 2010 to support high quality co-commissions and tours, stimulating collaboration between composers, performance groups and music organisations across the four different UK countries and, since 2014, the Republic of Ireland.

Previous Beyond Borders successes have included Songs of Separation, a collective of 10 female English and Scottish folk musicians whose album won ‘Best Album’ at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2017, and David Fennessy’s ‘Panopticon’, commissioned by Hebrides Ensemble and Psappha, which won the Scottish Award for New Music for Small Scale work. Martin Green’s ‘Flit’, combining live music and animation which reflects on first hand stories of migration, also won over audiences and critics nationwide in 2016, and was funded through Beyond Borders.

Beyond Borders is a co-commissioning and touring programme run in partnership with Creative Scotland, supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland’s Open Project Fund, Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Find out more about Beyond Borders