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National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists Announce Winners of Female Commissioning Scheme

February 12, 2021

The National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists (STF) are delighted to announce the winners of its Female Commissioning Scheme; namely Éna Brennan (Established Composer), Amelia Clarkson (Emerging Composer), Finola Merivale (Music Recording Award) and Wyvern Lingo (Music Project Award). The scheme offers established and emerging female and female identifying musicians and composers from all musical idioms a new platform to create work. This year saw the scheme expand to include the new strand of ‘Recordings’ and ‘Projects’, the former to support a high-quality professional recording project and the latter to support high-quality music projects. 

The Female Commissioning Scheme is part of a five-year partnership initiative with NCH and Sounding the Feminists, established in 2018 and supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, under the Creative Ireland programme with co-funding confirmed in the form of €20,000 a year, over five years. That makes it a significant contribution to promoting work by female musicians and composers.  

Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media said: “I am delighted that the Department has been able to support the Sounding the Feminists and National Concert Hall initiative as part of a five-year partnership that is funded by the Creative Ireland Programme. This funding has been a great support to female composers in the music industry. I would like to congratulate the winners of the Female Commissioning Scheme as part of this initiative. This scheme offers a fantastic platform for established and emerging female musicians and composers to create, record and produce new music projects.” 
 
Speaking of the initiative Maura McGrath, Chair of the National Concert Hall said: “The restrictions posed by Covid 19 have had serious adverse effects on all sectors of the arts, so supporting our creative community is more important than ever. Today we are delighted to announce the winners of the third instalment of this important initiative with Sounding the Feminists, which is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media under the Creative Ireland Programme, to whom we are very grateful. 

We are very pleased to be in a position to provide valuable funding to this year’s deserving recipients, who have each displayed outstanding skill and creativity. The NCH together with STF will continue to create opportunities for and promote the work of female and female-identifying composers and musicians in Ireland, across musical genres. This partnership initiative is central to achieving this aim.” 

Karen Power, Chair of Sounding the Feminists said: “STF were hugely impressed by the depth and diversity of creative voices that emerged through this scheme. There is an abundance of skilled women working across many areas of Ireland’s music sector. We are thrilled that this partnership enables us to support even a small portion of some of the most original and valuable work out there.

We’re delighted to support Sounding the Feminists. Sustained funding from Creative Ireland over 5 years has enabled the NCH to support composers and begin to address glaring imbalances. We all look forward to hearing these new recordings and live streams in 2021,” said Tania Banotti, Director of the Creative Ireland Programme. 

WINNERS 

  • Established Commission Award: Éna Brennan (Rupture VII€10,000 
  • Mid-Career/Emerging Commission Award: Amelia Clarkson (I AM LEDA€3,000 
  • Music Recording Award: Finola Merivale (Do You Hear Me Now?€10,000 
  • Music Project Award: Wyvern Lingo (Collaborative Audio / Visual livestream concert performance) €15,000 

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