The Full Score
Errollyn Wallen, Judith Bingham and Helen Grime all enjoy due recognition
New Year Honours; plus the Ivors Composer Awards
The 2020 New Year Honours list provided great cause for celebration among British women composers, three of whom received awards. Elsewhere, the rise of cellist Sheku Kanneh-mason continued with an MBE, while the long and distinguished career of BBC presenter and director Humphrey Burton is recognised with a knighthood.
Awarded, respectively, a CBE, OBE and MBE, composers Errollyn Wallen, Judith Bingham and Helen Grime have all made their own considerable mark on the British music scene over recent years. The Belize-born Wallen became the first ever black woman to have a composition performed at the BBC Proms when, in 1998, Adrian Spillett, Alasdair Malloy and the BBC Philharmonic played her Concerto for Percussion. She returned to the Royal Albert Hall this year for the world premiere of her This frame is part of the painting, while other recent highlights include the orchestral work Mighty River, which formed part of the Hull City of Culture celebrations in 2017.
Errollyn Wallen has made a considerable mark on the British music scene
A former member of the BBC Singers, Bingham has enjoyed particular acclaim for her choral works, not least The Christmas Truce and Missa Brevis: The Road to Emmaeus, which both won British Composer Awards in 2004. Grime’s recent successes, meanwhile, include Woven
Space, commissioned for Simon Rattle’s inaugural season as music director of the London Symphony Orchestra.
At just 20 years old, Sheku Kannehmason is undoubtedly one of the youngest figures to appear on the New Year Honours list. The honour of an MBE, however, recognises a career that has already seen him win the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, sign a major recording contract with Decca and, most famously, play at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. At the other end of the age range is Sir Humphrey Burton, 88, whose CV includes being appointed as the BBC’S first head of music and arts in 1965 and creating and presenting BBC Young Musician of the Year. A close friend of Leonard Bernstein, he has written about the composer and conductor, among other subjects, for BBC Music Magazine.
Finally, away from the public spotlight, there is also a CBE for Timothy Walker, chief executive of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, plus the award of MBES for Scottish pipe band drummer Thomas Brown and teacher Claire Pashley, who is recognised for her work with young people with disabilities and special educational needs.