Choral and Community works honoured at The Ivors Classical Awards 2025
Choral and community writing took centre stage at The Ivors Classical Awards 2025, where Anna Clyne won Best Choral Composition for Orbits, a seven-minute work for chorus and solo violin commissioned by The Sixteen and published by Boosey & Hawkes.
The shortlisted works in the Best Choral Composition category were Hear My Heart Sing by Bernard Hughes, with words by Helen Eastman; Hello Halo by Ruby Colley; and Nothing At All by Julian Anderson, with words by Paul Griffiths. Best Community and Participation Composition, in association with ABRSM, was awarded to Uprising, a large-scale community opera by Jonathan Dove with a libretto by April De Angelis, commissioned by Saffron Hall Trust and Glyndebourne. Three special Gift of the Academy Awards were presented. Anne Dudley was inducted as the 33rd Fellow of The Ivors Academy, Anoushka Shankar received the Innovation Award, and Debbie Wiseman became the inaugural recipient of the new award for Outstanding Contribution to Screen Composition. Roberto Neri, CEO of The Ivors Academy, said: ‘The Ivors Classical Awards celebrate the art and importance of composition in all its forms, honouring the imagination, skill and dedication that go into creating new music. Each Ivor Novello Award is a unique moment of peer recognition for the most important people in music – its composers. Tonight shows why it’s essential that composers are supported, valued and fairly rewarded for their work.’ Andrea Czapary Martin, CEO of PRS for Music, said: ‘Congratulations to this year’s Ivor Novello Classical Award winners – your achievements speak to the range and vitality of composition across the UK. And to every nominee, being shortlisted for an Ivor is a milestone in itself and a testament to the strength of your work.’