A Press Release from the LMS, which has supported this prize by allowing the winning piece to be performed at our Easter Triduum services in St Mary Moorfields in London.
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The winner of the 2015 inaugural Schellhorn Prize for Sacred Music
Composition has been announced.
Young composer Marco Galvani wins a £500 prize and a world premiere
during the Holy Week services at St Mary Moorfields Catholic Church in the City
of London.
Marco, 20, from Prenton on the Wirral, is a second-year Music student at
The Queen’s College, Oxford. His piece ‘Ecce Quam Bonum’, a short setting of
the first verses of Psalm 133, will be performed on Holy Saturday.
Marco said: ‘Winning this prize means an awful lot to me. I put a lot
into the piece, I pushed myself more than I had before and tried out more
complex ideas.
‘I have been singing choral music for as long as I can remember, and
it’s an amazing feeling to win a prize for a choral piece that I have composed
myself. I’m very excited about having my piece performed in London.’
Classical pianist Matthew Schellhorn founded the prize in 2014 to foster
artistic endeavor and encourage excellence in the Sacred Liturgy. Matthew said:
‘The competition is aimed at 18 to 26 year olds, which is the age when
musicians need financial help and encouragement and some kind of
infrastructure. It is hoped the prize will provide an incentive and build up a
working relationship.
‘I was delighted to work with four leading practicing musicians in order
to recommend a winner. Judging was a tough call because many of the entries
displayed a high degree of compositional merit and sensitivity. Marco’s piece
was outstanding, and further it is performable by a small group making it
adaptable in the real world.’
In addition, the Trustees have given an honourable mention to three
other entrants - Robert Busiakiewitz for Kyrie, Barnaby Martin
for Gloria and Thomas Neal for Pange lingua.
Matthew added: ‘Encouraging people to write liturgical music helps to
raise the standard of contemporary music in Catholic churches. Currently lots
of brilliant liturgical music is commissioned but is performed in concert and
not in the Sacred Liturgy. This prize helps re-establish the link between
liturgical music and the Church.’
The Schellhorn Prize for Sacred Music Composition is supported by
the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales. Chairman Joseph Shaw said: ‘I am
delighted that the Latin Mass Society has taken part in this important
initiative of the Schellhorn Trust to encourage young composers to tackle
liturgical music. I congratulate Marco for his winning piece, which will be a
worthy part of our Holy Week services in St Mary Moorfields, London, this
year.’
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| The kiss of peace at High Mass at the Birmingham Oratory.The liturgical text set by Mr Galvani means 'Behold how good and fitting it is, when brothers live together in unity.' It is used liturgically in the EF in the Gradual chant of the XXII Sunday after Pentecost, and it is sung in the Benedictine Office every evening at the end of Vespers. |
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