Our story
The Ivors Academy has represented songwriters and composers for over 80 years. Founded in 1944 as the Composers Guild of Great Britain, the organisation has evolved through decades of change, always staying true to its values of protecting, empowering and celebrating the creators behind the music.
We were formed through the merger of three guilds: the Composers Guild of Great Britain, representing classical composers, the Songwriters Guild of Great Britain, and the Association of Professional Composers, representing media composers.
These organisations came together over time to form the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA), and in 2019, BASCA adopted the trading name of The Ivors Academy, bringing our campaigning, support and prestigious awards under one name.
In 1956 we launched the Ivor Novello Awards, to recognise the highest achievements in songwriting and composing.
Since then, these awards became known as The Ivors and have continued to honour exceptional talent, craft and creativity. Each winner receives an iconic Ivor Novello Award statuette and joins a distinguished roll call of greats.
We founded the British Composer Awards in 2003, to celebrate classical composers and sound artists, and bring their music to a wider audience. Over 15 years, the British Composer Awards earned a reputation for doing just that. They were rebranded in 2019 to The Ivors Composer Awards and from 2023 are known as The Ivors Classical Awards.
Each winner receives an iconic Ivor Novello Award statuette of Euterpe, the Greek muse of music and lyric poetry. It was designed in 1955 by Hazel Underwood, an undergraduate of St Martin’s School of Art in London. To this day it is still cast in solid bronze and weighs just over 7lbs.
