The UK's Ivors Academy Fellowship Announces New Recipient

Composer Errollyn Wallen will become the 28th Fellow of The Ivors Academy, joining past recipients including John Adams, Elton John, and Paul McCartney

The UK’s Ivors Academy Fellowship recognizes outstanding excellence and impact in music-making. Since 2000, 28 composers and songwriters have been inducted into the Fellowship. 

As the Fellowship’s newest member, the Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen CBE is awarded for her contribution to contemporary classical music with a catalog of 22 operas and a range of orchestral, chamber, and vocal compositions. 

On November 12, 2024, Wallen will be inducted into Fellowship at the Ivors Classical Awards at the BFI Southbank in London. To attend, click here. 

The Ivors Classical Awards will also be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on November 16 in an edition of the New Music Show, and will be made available on BBC Sounds.

In 2013, Wallen became the first woman to receive an Ivor Novello award for Classical Music at the Ivors Academy’s songwriting and screen composing ceremony and received a British Composer Award from the Academy in 2005.

A decade later, she was ranked among the Top 20 most-performed living classical composers and was the first Black woman to have a work featured in the Proms. 

Additionally, Wallen’s music was featured at the opening ceremony of the 2021 Paralympic Games and at Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees. Recently, she was appointed Master of The King’s Music. 

As a broadcaster, she has worked on documentary programs including Classical Commonwealth for BBC Radio 3, which explores the impact of colonialism on music across the Commonwealth. Her book Becoming a Composer was published in November 2023.

Wallen was awarded an MBE in 2007 in the Queen’s Birthday Honors and a CBE in 2020 in the New Year Honors, for services to music.

“I am deeply touched to receive this Academy Fellowship and am most honored to join the twenty-seven illustrious musicians who are my predecessors,” Wallen said in the press release. “I would like to take this opportunity to give thanks for the guidance and encouragement I have received along my journey to becoming a composer — and for the lively artistic community of which I am part.”

“It is a privilege to announce Errollyn Wallen as the 28th Fellow of The Ivors Academy,” added Tom Gray, Chair of The Ivors Academy. “Her exceptional body of work, groundbreaking achievements and unwavering commitment to the craft of composition set her apart as one of the most inspiring figures in contemporary classical music. I look forward to celebrating with Errollyn and her peers at The Ivors Classical Awards.”

“By bestowing Errollyn with The Ivors Academy’s highest honor, we not only celebrate her remarkable talent but also reaffirm our mission to protect, empower and champion composers and songwriters,” noted Ivors Academy’s CEO Roberto Neri. “It is fitting that she joins the extraordinary roll call of Fellows from across music who have left an indelible mark on both culture and our lives.”

Past recipients of the Ivors Academy Fellowship include John Adams, Joan Armatrading, David Arnold, Malcolm Arnold, John Barry, Don Black, Pierre Boulez, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Julian Joseph, Annie Lennox, Andrew Lloyd Webber, James MacMillan, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Tim Rice, John Rutter, Judith Weir, Sting, and many more.