Posted: 14 September 2002
This year the Composition Prize has been won by David Gorton, who was runner up in last year's competition, for his new piece for cello and piano: "When does dewfall begin?". Iain Jackson was Highly Commended for his composition: Numerous Puzzles for chamber ensemble (five players). Diana Burrell was the adjudicator.
David Gorton was born in 1978 and brought up in Spalding, Lincolnshire. After graduating from Durham University in 1999 with a first-class degree, he studied composition with Sir Harrison Birtwistle at King's College London and with Simon Bainbridge at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is currently completing a PhD in composition. In 1998 his string quartet Mosaic was shortlisted by spnm. He was awarded the Eve Myra Kisch Prize in 1999, the Hilda Margaret Watts Prize in 2000 and the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2001.
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David Gorton |
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David Gorton's recent commissions include Revontulet for the Oxford Contemporary Music Festival, Silver Myrtea for Alison Wells and Gemini, Tahela, Place of the Stars for the Czardas Duo and Salve Sancta Facies for the Organ series at the Royal Festival Hall. Oblique Prayers for solo soprano and large ensemble was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and premièred by Claire Booth and the London Sinfonietta, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, at State of the Nation 2002.
David Gorton writes of his prize-winning composition: "The final movement of my song-cycle Oblique Prayers is scored for just soprano and solo cello and sets the poem...That Passeth Understanding by Denise Levertov. One of the lines from this poem is 'when does dewfall begin?' and this became the title and starting point of a new piece for cello and piano. While the cello material is borrowed and rewritten from the earlier work, the function of the cello changes from accompanying a voice to being accompanied by a piano, and music that was delicate and lyrical becomes, within its new context, gritty and fragile."
Iain Jackson studied at Birmingham University where his interest in composition developed and became his principal study. He is also an accomplished and enthusiastic performer on both piano and trombone.
The Composition Prize of £500 is awarded annually from an endowment established in 1999 by the Alan Bush Music Trust in memory of Alan Bush, who was both a student and eminent Professor of Composition for 53 years at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
The prizewinners for the previous years' competition were: Maciej Zielinski (1999) for Lutoslawski in Memoriam for oboe and piano, Tim Smith (2000) for To Find Trees and Stars for clarinet, piano, violin, cello and viola and Stephane Altier (2001) for Nox for clarinet and piano.