Francis Chagrin Awards
Sound and Music has re-launched the Francis Chagrin Awards. Composers will now be able to apply for support to help meet costs associated with creating new work.
"Sound and Music is committed to supporting the extraordinary range of practices that make up new music in the UK, and this new award aims to provide regular support towards the costs associated with the making of work. Whatever style you are working in, whatever background you are from, if you are struggling with the costs of composing a new work, I would urge you to consider an application.”
Richard Whitelaw, Sound and Music’s Head of Programmes
Applications to the Award are now closed, with successful applicants for the second round to be announced in June.
The next opportunity to apply for the Francis Chagrin Award will be in November 2013.
Eligibility Criteria
Applications for Francis Chagrin Awards will have three deadlines a year – in February, May, and November.
- Applicants can apply for financial support towards clearly evidenced and itemised costs. The criteria specify that the composers must be:
UK resident - not in regular paid employment equivalent to 3 days a week or more
- not studying full time at undergraduate level
- able to demonstrate clearly how the Award can be used to meet costs directly associated with making a specific new work, for example through copies of receipts or invoices, or through written evidence of future cost
- Successful applicants may not apply for a year after receiving their award.
- The maximum amount applicants can request is £500 and Sound and Music will only exceptionally make awards of that size.
Selection
Decisions are made by Sound and Music’s Trustees and will be based on the impact this would have on your professional development and clear evidence of how the application directly helps to meet the costs of making a particular new work.
Examples of costs for which the Award may be used include:
- Photocopying material
- Copying costs (for score-based work)
- Studio time integral to the creation of a specified new work
- Purchase of materials integral to the creation of a specified new work
Exclusions:
The Award may not be used to support travel for any purpose, or for promotional materials, including websites and recordings.
Budget
The budget is limited in size to £1,500 per year. The Sound and Music Trustees are committed to maximizing the benefit to composers from these awards, so decision-making will also take into account value for money.
The successful applicants for the last round of the Francis Chagrin Award were: Michael Cutting, Sharon Gal, John Lely, Nao Masuda and James Welland.
Michael Cutting (1987) is a British composer, currently working towards a PhD in Composition at Kings College London, supervised by George Benjamin. In 2011 he graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with a Mmus Distinction and the Soroptomist Prize.
His works have been performed in venues such as Cadogan Hall, Purcell Room, RNCM Concert Hall, The Anvil, and Dartington Hall and in festivals such as Park Lane Group's New Year Series 2012, RNCM's James MacMillan Festival and RNCM's Alexander Goehr Festival. Michael has worked with groups like Endymion Ensemble, Manchester Camerata, Lontano, Composers Ensemble, Fretwork, Lancashire Sinfonietta and, BBC Singers, and Hampshire County Youth Orchestra. He has won numerous composition awards, including the BBC Proms Composition Competition (2006) and Lancashire Sinfonietta's Christopher Brooks Memorial Prize (2008/09).
In 2012, Michael established the ACM Ensemble, which has had a growing reputation for its ambitious projects and close collaborations with composers. After being award an MBF Emerging Excellence Award, ACM is now working closely with Ensemble 10/10 for the 2013/14 season.
Sharon Gal is a cross-disciplinary artist, performer and musician. Her practice involves vocal and electronics free improvisation, collaborative group and site specific performances, field recordings and radio broadcast. She performs solo, and in regular collaborations with Steve Beresford, Steve Noble, Alex Ward, John Edwards, Dylan Nyoukis, Phil Minton and Feral Singers.
Sharon is a founder member of London’s arts radio, Resonance 104.4 FM and has been presenting and producing various shows including Diggers, with Edwin “Savage Pencil” Pouncey, and Stereo Cilia, a weekly urban soundscape diary.
She has several audio releases: Ash International, Paradigm records, Chocolate Monk, Emanem, Ecstatic Yod, and the recent 7” vinyl, Melancoholic, for American Tapes Label.
John Lely (1976) studied at Goldsmiths University of London with Roger Redgate, Dave Smith and John Tilbury, and privately with Michael Parsons. In 2007 he was a resident student at Ostrava New Music Days, and in 2012 a resident composer at the Bozzini Quartet's Composer's Kitchen in Montreal and Huddersfield.
His compositions have been featured internationally at festivals such as MaerzMusik (Berlin), Ultima (Oslo), and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. He frequently collaborates with various musicians and groups, including such as Apartment House, Quatuor Bozzini, Angharad Davies and, Rhodri Davies, edges, Pedro Gomez-Egaña, Seth Kim-Cohen, Sebastian Lexer, Ross Parfitt, Michael Parsons, Michael Pisaro, Taylan Susam, Philip Thomas, Manfred Werder, John White and Seymour Wright.
He has curated and performed in concerts of music by composers like Antoine Beuger, Cornelius Cardew, Philip Corner, Laurence Crane, Jürg Frey, Michael Pisaro, Tom Johnson, Travis Just, Alvin Lucier, Chris Newman and Christian Wolff. Currently, alongside Tim Parkinson and Markus Trunk, he curates the annual Music We'd Like to Hear concert series.
He taught composition at Goldsmiths, and experimental sound at Chelsea College of Arts, and he has been a researcher at Bath Spa University. He is co-author, with James Saunders, of Word Events: Perspectives on Verbal Notation (Continuum 2012).
Nao Masuda is a Japanese born composer and performer. In 1998, she moved to London where she has worked with a number of bands and collaborative projects. Since 2012 she is part of a London based Taiko drumming group and has toured extensively in the UK, Europe, Turkey and Sri Lanka for the following three years as well as recording an album.
Since her fist performance with AMICI Dance Theatre Company in 2007, her work has mainly revolved in and around theatre with a variety of elements and art forms. Apart from composing and performing theatrical music, her work in theatre so far includes directing, devising, artwork, physical performance, and Taiko drumming and soundscaping workshops.
Nao’s recent work outside theatre includes solo Taiko Performance at Ludwigshaften Festival (Germany), solo and duo Taiko Performances in UK and composing and recording for a documentary film.
James Welland studied music at King's College, London under Robert Keeley and Silvina Milstein, before completing a Master's degree in Composition at the University of Cambridge under Robin Holloway, being the recipient of the Reinstein Prize.
He has written music for the documentary NanoYou, narrated by Stephen Fry, which went on to win first prize at the Scinema International Festival of Science Film. More recently James has been working on the popular music scene with artists such as Laura Bettinson, Aaron Horn, Ms. D, K Koke and Beaux Saunders.
The Francis Chagrin award will be used by James to fund studio time for spectral analysis, DSP and electronic music production as part of the composition process for a collaborative orchestral commission with Claire Hazelton to be performed by Orchestra Vitae in autumn this year.
Francis Chagrin was the founder of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM). During his career he composed symphonies, songs, chamber music, and over 200 film scores. His music is collected in Sound and Music’s British Music Collection.
