British Composer Awards 2006

The 2006 British Composer Awards were announced on Friday 24th November in a ceremony hosted by the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters at London’s Hayward Gallery.

The PRS Foundation for new music (PRSF) is proud to support the BBC Radio 3 Listeners Award and Community or Education Project at this year’s Awards.

The British Composer Awards is the only Awards programme designed to celebrate the work of contemporary classical composers in the UK.

Charlotte Ray, Manager of the PRS Foundation said: “Supporting the British Composer Awards this year underscores our commitment to fund new music and create opportunities for more new work to be heard by even more people. The winners of the Listeners Award and the Community or Education Award are both outstanding examples of how new music inspires audiences today.”

The BBC Radio 3 Listeners Award gives the public its chance to vote for their favourite orchestral works commissioned by the BBC over the past year. This year Radio 3 listeners chose Popcorn Superhet Receiver, a piece composed by Radiohead’s lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. As winner, he will receive £10,000 towards a new orchestral commission which will be broadcast in 2007 and funded by the PRSF.

The voting process for the Listeners Award gave music-lovers all over the country the opportunity to make their voices heard and to say 'More please!’

“The PRSF directly supports around 50 commissions for new music each year,’ comments Charlotte Ray, ‘but this £10,000 orchestral commission will be in response to this very public Listeners' Award. I'm delighted that the BBC Concert Orchestra are performing Popcorn Superhet Receiver again at the Award ceremony, and that Jonny Greenwood's continued exploration of orchestral music will be the response to this Listeners' Award.”

Jonathan Dove’s On Spital Fields, a community cantata written for over 200 amateur and professional musicians, won this year’s award for a Community or Education Project.

“Jonathan Dove's superb community cantata, devised with and produced by Spitalfields Festival, is an inspired winner. Jonathan has an amazing ability to enable people to tell their story, while creating powerful, memorable and beautifully crafted music. The impact of this two year project on the 200 performers of all ages in Spitalfields was extraordinary. This principle of integrating creative community involvement with the highest quality artistic standards is a hall-mark of both Spitalfields Festival's and Jonathan Dove's work, and is one which the PRSF is proud to support with this £5,000 award for a future project.” writes Charlotte Ray.

Now in its fourth year, the Awards are sponsored annually by the Performing Right Society (PRS), and run in association with BBC Radio 3.

Radio 3 presenters Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Petroc Trelawny revealed this year’s winning works, and the composer Steve Martland presented the Awards.