Liam Taylor-West wins at the British Composer Awards
Friday 7 December 2018
Royal College of Music Doctoral student Liam Taylor-West has won the British Composer Award for a Community or Educational project for his work The Umbrella, commissioned by Open Up Music.
Liam is studying for a Doctorate in Composition with William Mival, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Gilbert Nouno. He is Creative Director of the immersive audio company Roomsize, established as part of Digital Catapult's CreativeXR programme, and is a resident at Watershed's Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol. He is also the current holder of The Bliss Trust's Scholarship to Study in the USA.
The Umbrella was written for the South West Open Youth Orchestra and premiered in June last year at the Old Theatre Royal in Bath. The Open Youth Orchestra is open to disabled and non-disabled musicians aged 11 – 25. The Orchestra allows its members the opportunity to make music using assistive technologies and provides them with a unique progression route.
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Liam commented: ‘It is a real honour to have been given a British Composer Award, especially in the category for community music-making. The Umbrella was the result of an extended period of rehearsing with the ensemble, getting to know the players, and gaining an understanding about the unique ways each of them learns and performs music. I am hugely grateful to the musicians and staff at Open Up Music for the hard work they put into making the performance of The Umbrella as good as it was.’
The annual British Composer Awards were announced on Tuesday 4 December at a ceremony at the British Museum in London. Also successful this year was RCM alumnus Simon Dobson, who won in the Wind and Brass Band section his work The Turing Test.
New composers took centre stage this year, with 70% of the winners receiving their first Awards. The British Composer Awards promote the art of composition, recognise the creative talent of composers and sound artists, and bring their music to a wider audience.
To find out about the Composition faculty at the RCM, visit the webpage.
