The £10,000 (€12,572) Arts Foundation Award, in partnership with PRS for Music Foundation, will this year recognise jazz composers representative of the UK scene.
The award is one of five other £10,000 Arts Foundation fellowships up for grabs in the disciplines of creative non-fiction, live art, essay filmmaking, materials innovation and furniture design.
PRS for Music Foundation executive director Vanessa Reed said: ‘This award enables us to give one jazz composer the chance to take control of their next steps at a critical stage in their development. We look forward to learning about the nominees’ needs and aspirations.’
The alliance with the Arts Foundation and PRS for Music Foundation began in 2015, with its first £10,000 fellowship grant (supporting creative producers working in live music) going to producer Laura Ducceschi.
The nominees for the 2017 Jazz Composer Award, which is open to UK based composers, will be made by musicians, producers, broadcasters and other industry experts.
Composers nominated can be writing works of any style and instrumentation and the grant should be used by the winner to support the time needed to create new work. Awards of £1,000 will also be provided to shortlisted candidates.
Director of the Arts Foundation Shelley Warren added: ‘We are delighted PRS for Music Foundation is supporting jazz this year. There’s some great work happening at the moment with both young and mid-term artists and it’s great to capitalise on that and bring some of it to the fore with the award.’
The judging panel will be announced later in the year.
