2025 Ivors Classical Awards: Anibal Vidal, Anna Clyne, Helen Grime, Jonathan Dove, Luke Mombrea, Nneka Cummins, Anne Dudley, Anoushka Shankar and Debbie Wiseman

Jonathan Dove and April de Angelis, winners of the Award for Best Community and Participation Composition at The Ivors Classical Awards [Photo: Hogan Media – Shutterstock]

Last night, 11 November, The Ivors Academy presented awards to the winners at The Ivors Classical Awards. The celebration of outstanding new compositions by British, Irish and UK resident composers. BBC Radio 3 will broadcast the ceremony on 15 November in a special edition of the New Music Show and the episode will also be available on BBC Sounds.

Three special Gift of the Academy Awards were presented to Anne Dudley, Anoushka Shankar and Debbie Wiseman, and a further eight composers and librettists were recognised across six categories, with Ivor Novello Awards going to composers Anibal Vidal, Anna Clyne, Helen Grime, Jonathan Dove, Luke Mombrea and Nneka Cummins, and librettists April De Angelis and Zoe Gilbert. 

Anna Clyne, winner of the Award for Best Choral Composition (Photo: Hogan Media – Shutterstock)

• Best Choral Composition – Anna Clyne was awarded her first Ivor Novello Award for Orbits, a piece commissioned and performed by The Sixteen and Harry Christophers setting the poem I Live My Life In Growing Orbits by Rilke in a translation by American poet Robert Bly. 
• [see my review]
• Best Chamber Ensemble Composition – London-based Chilean composer Anibal Vidal is a first-time nominee who received his first Ivor Novello Award for Invocación n. 2: A Kintsugi Resurrection. The title refers to the Japanese art of Kintsugi. It was commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia who  performed the world premiere with trumpet soloist Imogen Whitehead and conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh at St Giles Cripplegate
• Best Community and Participation Composition – Jonathan Dove received his fourth Ivor Novello Award and librettist April De Angelis received her first for their work Uprising, a community opera co-commissioned by Saffron Hall Trust and Glyndebourne. Focusing on the climate crisis, the opera aims to inspire real change, using a fictional family to emphasise the universality and timelessness of this cause. 
• [see director Sinéad O’Neill’s article about Uprising]
• Best Large Ensemble Composition – First-time nominee Nneka Cummins received their first award for their work finding gills [when they try to drown you] for chamber orchestra and electronics. Commissioned by nonclassical, the work was first performed by the Sinfonia Smith Square Orchestra at Sinfonia Smith Square. 
• Best Orchestral Composition – Helen Grime was awarded her second Ivor Novello Award and librettist Zoe Gilbert received her first for their work Folk for soprano and orchestra. Commissioned by BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Britten Pears Arts, the BBCSSO performed the premiere alongside Claire Booth and conductor Ryan Wigglesworth at Glasgow City Halls. 
• [see my interview with Claire Booth]
• Best Small Chamber Composition – First time nominee Luke Mombrea collected his first award for his work Black Gold for chamber ensemble and electronics by the London  Symphony Orchestra as part of its Discovery Soundhub Showcase and was first performed by Clare Findlater, Colin Alexander, Josie Ellis, Matt Farthing and Luke Mombrea at LSO St Luke’s in London. 
• Academy Fellowship – Anne Dudley was awarded an Ivor Novello Award and inducted into a Fellowship. She is a pioneering figure in popular music. She was a founding member of 1980s electronic music group Art  of Noise, whose experiments in sampling remain influential to this day. She was also arranger and keyboard player on the iconic Lexicon  of Love album with ABC.
• Innovation Award – Composer and sitarist Anoushka Shankar was honoured with the Innovation Award, an award that celebrates composers whose creativity expands the boundaries of music and inspires their peers,
• Outstanding Contribution to Screen Composition – The Ivors Academy presented an award for Outstanding Contribution to Screen Composition for the first time, choosing Debbie Wiseman as the inaugural recipient. 

Helen Grime and Zoe Gilbert, winners of the Award for Best Orchestral Composition at The Ivors Classical Awards (Photo: Hogan Media – Shutterstock)

Full details from The Ivors Academy website.