BELFAST-born composer Brian Irvine and Dubliner Andrew Hamilton are among the 30 nominees for the British Composer Awards 2017, announced earlier this week.
Former punk musician Mr Irvine started a music school in his mother’s attic in Bangor, where members of Snow Patrol were among his pupils. He was Belfast's first music laureate in 2015.
His nominated project, Anything But Bland, celebrates the life of Lilian Bland, the first woman to design, build and fly and aeroplane, which she did in Co Antrim in 1910. The piece was performed at Ulster Hall in Belfast as part of this year's Northern Ireland Science Festival, for which it was commissioned, by the Ulster Orchestra and singers from across the north.
Mr Hamilton is a renowned composer whose nominated choral piece, Proclamation Of The Republic, is based on the 1916 reading of the Proclamation by Patrick Pearse. The piece is dedicated to and was inspired by Andrew’s father after he spent a week living beside Arbour Hill Cemetery, where 14 executed leaders of the Easter Rising are buried.
He states that although he does not agree with all the words in the Proclamation, his piece acts as a neutral observer to its words, which changed history.
This year's British Composer Awards shortlist highlights on composers engaging with current affairs, politics, and gender perceptions through music, with nominations spanning 33 works across 11 categories.
Almost half the nominees aged under 40, while more women nominated than ever before, according to organisers. A record number of entries were received this year, up by 18.5 per cent in 2016.
For the first time, there is an all-female orchestral category, while themes emerging from the nominees include works inspired by science, mathematics and mental health, and compositions influenced by writers and artists.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony presented by BBC Radio 3 presenters Andrew McGregor and Sara Mohr-Pietsch at the British Museum in London on December 6.
