Wigmore Hall’s 120th anniversary celebrations culminate today with the winners announcement of the largest ever one-off commissioning scheme in the history of the hall.

16 composers aged 24 to 63, spanning five nationalities, have been chosen as winners of Wigmore Hall’s ‘Lockdown Commissions Scheme.’ Chosen from over 700 applications that responded to Wigmore Hall’s October 2020 call-out, each winning composer, over the age of 18 never before commissioned by Wigmore Hall, will write new music reflecting each individual lockdown experience to be premiered at the hall over the next four years.

The 16 winning composers are:

Patricia Alessandrini
Francesco Antonioni (49, Italian)
Katherine Balch (29, American)
Nicholas Bentz (27, American)
Jocelyn Campbell (30, British)
Alexander Campkin (36, British)
Tom Coult (32, British)
Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade (32, British)
Lawrence Dunn (30, British)
Samantha Fernando (36, British)
Thomas Gibbs (26, British)
Stewart Goodyear (43, Canadian)
Hilda Paredes (63, British/Mexican)
Alex Paxton (30, British)
Shruthi Rajasekar (24, American)
Alex Tay (26, British)

Having commissioned or co-commissioned over 600 new works since 2005, Wigmore Hall’s ongoing commitment to new music is further underlined by the ‘Lockdown Commissions Scheme.’

John Gilhooly, Director of Wigmore Hall, said:

“The ‘Lockdown Commissions Scheme’ is the largest single initiative Wigmore Hall has ever undertaken to find new voices, and a fitting way to celebrate an important anniversary as we look to the future. It has been a great joy to hear new music of such quality and invention from such diverse talents across the globe. I am looking forward to programming the premieres with these new friends.

I must thank the distinguished members of the jury for their time and expertise. I am also particularly grateful to the Marchus Trust for underpinning this scheme with a lead gift, and supporting Wigmore Hall in this major new initiative for contemporary music.”

The panel of judges are:

Richard Baker (composer)
Charlotte Bray (composer)*
Toks Dada (Classical Music Programmer)
Daniel Fardon (composer)*
Dani Howard (composer)*
Daniel Kidane (composer)
James Murphy (Chief Executive, Royal Philharmonic Society)
Laurence Osborn (composer)
Josephine Stephenson (composer)*
Freya Waley-Cohen (composer)
Errollyn Wallen (composer)

*Round one

Wigmore Hall’s Lockdown Commissions Scheme is supported by a lead gift from the Marchus Trust.