The Oram Awards 2023 winners announced - Emerging artists, composers, DJs and instrument designers based in Palestine, Malaysia, Scotland, Wales and England to be honoured
Oram Awards 2023 winners announced
The awards ceremony will take place on November 19th at Kings Place
Emerging artists, composers, DJs and even instrument designers based in Palestine, Malaysia, Scotland, Wales and England are amongst those being honoured at this year’s Oram Awards, in partnership with The Radiophonic Institute, PRS Foundation and the British Council.
The Oram Awards celebrates Women, Trans, Non-Binary and Gender Expansive artists who are pushing the envelope of creativity in sound, music and related technology. Previous winners include Loraine James, Klein, Venus Ex Machina, Francine Perry aka La Leif, and Amy Cutler. The work of this year’s winners represents the wide spectrum of innovative sound artists working in the UK and further afield today.
The Orams are honouring the most innovative artists around the globe with this year’s coveted award, many of which are pioneers of their craft and continuing to create their art in the face of adversity and hardship. One such artist, Maya Al Khaldi is a Palestinian experimental singer songwriter currently based in Jerusalem in the throes of war. Also honoured this year is Geo Aghinea a deaf musician crafting distinctive soundscapes that reflect their experiences hearing through a synthetic mechanism: hearing aids.
Another awardee is Cecilia “Cil” Morgan aka afromerm, who is a third-generation windrush descendent. In addition to building innovative instruments such as the motion-sensitive ‘Juniper’, in her project afromerm, she uses sound to evoke the auditory memories of her forebearers. South London’s No Home is also being honoured, who, after spending her childhood searching for rock stars of colour, makes glitchy noise-rock about capitalist Britain.
Other honorees include interdisciplinary artist Hannan Jones; award-winning pianist, composer and sound artist Helen Anahita Wilson, acoustic and electronic composer and performer Natalie Roe, and Kuala Lumpur/Singapore based Malaysian DJ & producer VIKTORIA / rEmPiT g0dDe$$.
Each winner will receive a bursary, access to a 6 month mentoring program supporting their professional and creative development. “This year we had thirty incredible shortlisted applications,” says co-director and lead producer Karen Sutton. “It’s always a joy listening to and discovering so many talented artists. The hardest part is deciding on only eight winners,” she continues. “After seven years, I really hope this is a turning point for the program and that with more financial support we will be able to support more artists and the wider community in the future. We are very proud that the Orams has become such an important award in this field and that its recognition and support transforms the careers of creatives who are breaking artistic boundaries but there is so much more work to be done.
The judging panel this year was made up of Mariam Rezaei (Award-winning Composer, Turntablist and Performer), Nonto F. Sihwa (aka Oram Award winning artist Venus Ex Machina), Dr Iris Garrelfs (Senior Lecturer in Sonic Art, Goldsmiths, University of London) and Karen Sutton.
Named after Daphne Oram, one of the founding members of the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the awards aim to build on her legacy. With others she worked at the workshop creating music for the distant future, the distant past and inside the mind. Along with other women of the workshop, including Delia Derbyshire, Glynis Jones, Jenyth Worsley, Maddalena Fagandini and Elizabeth Parker, Oram played a vital role in establishing women at the forefront of innovation in newly-emerging audio technologies not only in the UK but around the world.
Beka Bee, Grants Coordinator & Oram Awards Fund Manager at PRS Foundation said, “I am delighted to congratulate the six winners of this year's Awards, who have each demonstrated outstanding innovation in sound, music and technology across a multitude of genres. It is as vital as ever to be championing Women and Gender Diverse talent, and I am proud to be working with Karen and the Oram Awards team to support this fantastic range of artists.”
Joe Frankland, CEO at PRS Foundation said, “We’re proud to see the enormous impact of The Oram Awards over the years. This year’s open call attracted so many exciting artists and creators and I know The Oram Awards team proudly celebrates supporting the creative and career development of 50 UK creators since it was launched 7 years ago. Huge congratulations to this year’s winners from all at PRS Foundation.”
This year's ceremony will take place at Kings Place, London, on November 19th. The event will include workshops and panel discussions in the day, leading up to an awards ceremony in the evening featuring live performances from a selection of this year’s winners. The ceremony is open to the public and tickets can be purchased here: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/contemporary/the-oram-awards-2023/
2023 UK Winners
Cecilia "Cil" Morgan aka afromerm (she/her) is a South London born sound artist, composer, producer, poet and researcher. Cil’s solo project, afromerm, combines spoken and sung poetry with live electronics, and collaborative improvisation with musicians in her community. For her undergraduate thesis, Cil built Juniper, a motion-reactive instrument that she uses to manipulate sound, from live loops to elements of synthesis.
Hannan Jones (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist of Algerian and Welsh heritage who was raised on Binjareb Noongar Boodjar and is now based in Glasgow, Scotland. Hannan’s work is anchored in themes of identity; exploring hybridity within language and world-building associated with cultural and social migration.
Geo Aghinea (they/them) is a London-based producer, composer, and vocalist from Romania who continuously strives to create a distinctive soundscape that reflects their experience as a deaf musician who hears through a synthetic mechanism: hearing aids.
Helen Anahita Wilson (she/her) is a composer, sound artist, pianist, improviser, and practice-based researcher. Re-imaginings and sonic transductions form a major part of her output, exploring new ways of telling stories and sharing biomedical information through music and sonic arts. Based at SOAS University of London, she works at the forefront of sonic life writing with a special focus on experimenting with South Asian rhythmic theories as mechanisms of expressive narrative.
Charlotte Joseph aka No Home (she/they) released their first debut album, a mix of noise rock and pop, in June 2020 and was named one of the “The 35 Best Rock Albums of 2020” by Pitchfork. Their November 2022 follow up, Young Professional, is an experiment in pop music.
Natalie Roe (she/her) is a composer and performer based between Cardiff and the West Midlands. Most of Natalie's performances are centred around the Modular Synthesiser and often include Max MSP patches or Super Collider coding, live acoustic instruments, live visuals and multi-speaker array live spatialisation.
2023 International Winners in partnership with the British Council
VIKTORIA aka rEmPiT g0dDe$$ are the two projects of experimental electronic artist Victoria Yam. Spending her time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, the producer and DJ is a staple of the South East Asian electronic music scene. She recently co-founded a female, trans & non-binary DJ collective with the vision of growing an all female, trans & non-binary community of DJs in South East Asia
Maya Al Khaldi مايا الخالدي is an artist, musician and composer from Palestine, based in Jerusalem. Maya’s work explores voice and the music of the past and present, working with archival materials to imagine the future. Her debut album “عالم تاني – Other World” was inspired by Palestinian folklore. All songs include either lyrics, melodies, or recordings from the audio archive of the traditional Palestinian music of the Popular Art Center in Ramallah.
Alumni
2022
UK winners: Ella Kay, Amble Skuse, Kelly Jayne Jones, Lia Mazzari, Lula.xyz, Amy Cutler
International Category in partnership with British Council: Rani Jambak, FRKTL. Event & Ceremony in partnership with Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
2021
Winners: Magz Hall, Vivienne Griffin, Lia Mice, Lou Barnell, Maria Sappho, Venus Ex Machina.
Online awards & panel event in partnership with Brimingham based experimental festival Supersonic.
2020
Winners: Loula Yorke, Nicole Raymond (NikNak), Poulomi Desai, Una Lee, Vicky Clarke, Yifeat Ziv. Due to Covid the live ceremony was replaced with an evening of exclusive sets on SonitusLIVE/Twitch digital platform.
2019
Winners: Nwando Ebizie, Ain Bailey, CHAINES, Natalie Sharp, Steph Horak, Andie Brown. Presentation ceremony at Kings Place, London as part of Venus Unwrapped Festival.
2018
Winners: Georgia Rodgers, Loraine James, Francine Perry, Hannah Jones, Aja Ireland. Presentation ceremony taking place at BlueDot Festival at Jodrell Bank Telescope, Cheshire.
2017
Winners: Ewa Justka, Klein, Claire M Singer, Elvin Brandhi, Kathy Hinde, Mary Stark, Sally Golding, Shelly Knots. Inaugural event at Turner Contemporary, Margate.
Oram Awards Online:
