The Beyond Borders scheme, developed by PRS Music Foundation, with support from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Creative Scotland, Arts Council Wales and Colwinston Trust, is a unique funding programme which encourages music organisations to share resources and work together with other regions to commission new work by UK based composers.
A total of £110,000 has been awarded to nine projects, seven of which feature input from Northern Ireland partners.
The 2011 programme will involve 21 commissioning partners and 13 music creators. Every commission is guaranteed a performance in at least 2 venues in different parts of the UK, from Belfast to Rhossli Bay.
The nine successful collaborations are:
• Joe Acheson commissioned by Scottish Traditional Music Trust, Sidmouth Folk Festival (England), Trac (Wales), Edinburgh International Harp Festival and William Kennedy Piping Festival (Northern Ireland).
• Judith Bingham commissioned by National Youth Orchestra of Wales, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Ulster Youth Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Ireland.
• Stephen Deazely commissioned by St Magnus International Festival (Scotland), Deal Festival of Music and Arts (England), The Sage Gateshead (England), Welsh National Opera, Down Arts Centre (Northern Ireland) and Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
• Geraint Ffrancon commissioned by National Trust England and National Trust Wales.
• Orlando Gough commissioned by Glyndebourne and Scottish Opera.
• Phil Keiran (Northern Ireland) and White Noise Sound commissioned by Oh Yeah Music Centre (Northern Ireland), Swansea Creative Hub & Welsh Music Foundation.
• Soweto Kinch commissioned by Cathedral Arts Quarter Festival (Northern Ireland) and Nu Century Arts (England).
• Evan Parker commissioned by Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music (Northern Ireland), Dialogues Festival (Scotland) and Sound Scotland.
• Pwyll ap Sion commissioned by Galeri Caernarfon Cyf (Wales) and European Union Chamber Orchestra (England).
Rosa Solinas, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented: “It’s fantastic to see so many Northern Ireland partners feature in this year’s final list of projects and from such a wide spectrum of musical genres.
“Beyond Borders creates a unique opportunity to create new music by partnering, composers, organisations and musicians from locations from across the UK. This year’s programme will undoubtedly produce inspirational results and we very much look forward to seeing the results of that work over the coming months.”
Belfast techno legend Phil Keiran, who will be creating new music with Welsh psych-rockers White Noise Sound, commented: “After hearing White Noise Sound, I am confident we will find endless amounts of common ground. Even though on paper we look to come from different musical backgrounds, I think our musical taste will be surprisingly similar. For that reason I think this should get us some interesting results. I am genuinely looking forward to see how this all sounds when we are doing the showcases. It is very exciting already.”
