New Music Award 2008 announced
The winner of the PRS Foundation New Music Award 2008 was announced in front of an audience of invited guests at Shoreditch Town Hall on Monday 21 April.
Sound artist Jane Grant, musician and physicist John Matthias and BAFTA winning composer Nick Ryan took the £50,000 prize for their proposal, The Fragmented Orchestra, "a visionary new work which will enable us to hear the human brain at work and the sound of the UK as music." They now have until September 2009 to create the work and present it to the public.
The Fragmented Orchestra combines impeccable avante-garde credentials with cutting edge technology, taking in elements of online streaming, user generated content, sustainable energy, neurological architecture and cognitive science, and all spread across 24 different locations.
Although undoubtedly open to criticism that the winning entry is heading straight for Pseud's Corner, the Award is certainly achieving its aim of championing creatively-adventurous, inspiring, challenging and pioneering music.
The shortlist of proposals was a snapshot of the tremendous range of musical creativity to be found in the UK.