We announce the winner of the Allmänna Sången & Anders Wall Composition Award 2019. The well-renowned jury has reviewed contributions from 16 different countries and has chosen Norwegian Eva Holm Foosnæs as the winner of the award. In her piece “The Black Monkey”, she has built her music around the eponymous poem written by Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923). The price ceremony, as well as the world premiere, will take place in Uppsala the 25th of May 2019 during the traditional spring concert of Allmänna Sången. The prize consists of 50.000 SEK, a diploma and publishing of the piece by Gehrmans Musikförlag.
The jury’s conclusion
“With a very fine ear for the different characters and moods in the text Eva Holm Foosnæs has built an impressive dramatic composition with a good sense of musical form and with a humourous twist. The composition shows a mixture of traditional harmonics and more unusual elements with interesting glissandi and speech effects. The composer uses the resources of a mixed choir in a very clever way and gives room for all the 8 parts to be seen and heard during the work. By avoiding all extremes in notation and voicing Eva Holm Foosnæs has created a very usable composition that will be accessible for many mixed choirs in the world.”
The composer
Eva Holm Foosnæs was born in Steinkjer, Norway. She has earned degrees in piano and composing at the Music Conservatory in Trondheim, at the Conservatorio di Musica di Perugia, and the Robert Schumann Hochschule für Musik in Düsseldorf. She is today working as a freelancing arranger, composer, pianist and repetiteur and is also conducting the acclaimed chamber choir Aurum, working foremost with new Scandinavian music. Further, she is the artistic leader of Opera di Setra and Oslokspelet in Tylldalen. As a composer, she has written music mostly for choir, but also for stage, opera and theatre such as Propellen Teater, Trøndelag Teater and Lillehammer Litteraturfestival.
The lyrics
The Black Monkey is based in the eponymous poem by the New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923). To the composer, the poem describes a little girl called Babbles because of her “babbling”. Instead of listening to her parents at bedtime she throws a series of tantrums, as if she was controlled by a “black monkey”. Thereby the black monkey symbolises a “girlish rebellion”, Eva explains.
Words from the winner
“My heart is beating for choral singing, as a conductor, composer, practitioner and as an audience. The long and rich tradition of choral singing that we have here in Scandinavia is something to be proud of. Therefore it inspires even more when driving forces like Allmänna Sången organize an award for female composers. It is a great honor and joy to receive this award. Thank you!”
Allmänna Sången & Anders Wall Composition Award
Allmänna Sången & Anders Wall Composition Award was first held in the year 2013 as Allmänna Sången celebrated the 50th anniversary as a mixed choir. As a part of this celebration, the choir and Anders Wall declared this award focusing on female composers.
The award wants to acknowledge female composers and their works, as well as stimulate the creation of new art music that will enrich the choir singing of our time. The award is international and is open for female composer without discrimination against occupation or nationality. The contributions are reviewed by a well-renowned committee consisting of prominent conductors and composers. They were this year Lone Larsen, Vaclovas Augustinas, Maria Goundorina and Robert Sund.
Allmänna Sången & Anders Wall Composition Award will again be held in 2021. For more information, visit www.allmannasangen.se or contact the project manager.
Partners
Allmänna Sången & Anders Wall Composition Award have been made possible through collaboration with Gehrmans Musikförlag AB, as well as support from Kjell and Märta Beijers Stiftelse and Uppsala Municipality
