Mark Bowden and Gavin Higgins have both been nominated for prestigious awards by the Ivors Academy.
The annual Ivors Composer Awards (previously known as the British Composer Awards) recognise craft in classical, jazz, contemporary, and sound art composition. Works which received their UK premiere in the past year are eligible for nomination across twelve categories.
Professor Mark Bowden has been nominated in the Chamber Ensemble category for his saxophone concerto, Sapiens. The piece, inspired by Yuval Noah Harari’s extraordinary history of humankind, was premiered in December 2018 by Simon Haram and the London Sinfonietta.
Gavin Higgins, a current PhD student in the Department of Music, has been nominated in the Orchestral category. His trombone concerto, The Book of Miracles, premiered in February 2019 at the Barbican, in a performance given by Helen Vollam and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Two former Royal Holloway PhD students are also represented amongst the nominees: Geoff Hannan has been nominated for his choral work Pocket Universe, while Tansy Davies's Cave has been recognised in the Stage Works category.
The winners of each category will be announced at a ceremony at the British Museum in London on Wednesday 4 December 2019.
