The Glasgow School of Art Choir is delighted to announce that it has been selected as one seven ensembles across the UK to take part in the 2016/17 Adopt a Composer scheme. At a special launch event today, hosted by Making Music the ensemble was revealed as one of the successful choirs who will participate in this exciting project over the next twelve months.
The Adopt a Composer scheme pairs amateur choirs, orchestras, and ensembles with a composer for one year, facilitating a series of workshops and events in order to foster a relationship between the two. The ultimate outcome for the project is a brand new commission, approximately ten minutes in length, composed especially for the ensemble by their partnered composer. The world première performance is usually recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast during the following year and the composition and collaborative process is guided by an experienced mentor.
The GSA Choir has been selected as one of the ensembles to take part in the 2016/17 scheme, and it was today announced that the ensemble has been paired with Shona Mackay, a Scottish composer working in Glasgow.
“We are thrilled to have been selected to take part in this year’s prestigious Adopt a Composer scheme,” says Musical Director, Jamie Sansbury. “It is testament to the GSA Choir’s commitment to support and commission contemporary composers to create new choral works of the highest quality, and we are delighted to be working with Shona over the next year. We are also very excited to announce that the world première of Shona’s new choral work will be at our fifth anniversary concert in May 2017, which will be unlike any GSA Choir concert to date, an event befitting our milestone anniversary.”
Throughout the next year, the choir will be charting the progress of the collaboration through a series of blog posts which will be made available on the Making Music project website. These posts will also be shared on our social media profiles so that everyone can follow this exciting journey with us.
Composer, Shona Mackay.
Adopt a Composer is run by Making Music in partnership with Sound and Music, in association with BBC Radio 3, and funded by PRS for Music Foundation and the Philip and Dorothy Green Music Trust.
The world première of Shona’s new choral work will take place at the Glasgow School of Art Choir Fifth Anniversary Concert on 27 May 2017. For more information on the Adopt a Composer scheme visit the Making Music website.
