The Ivors Academy has announced the 36 composers and librettists nominated for an Ivor Novello Award across nine categories. The winners will be revealed at The Ivors Composer Awards, sponsored by PRS for Music and in association with BBC Radio 3, on 17 November at Grosvenor House on Park Lane, London.
The nominees include Hania Rani, Patrick Jonsson and Siôn Trefor, who have each received two nominations and are all nominated for the first time. Other first-time nominees include Ailís Ní Ríain, Anselm McDonnell, Deirdre McKay, Ioana Șelaru, Pav Gekko, Richard Collins, Ruth Morley, Sam Slater, Samuel D Loveless, Sasha Scott, Thomas Farnon and librettist Lee Hall.
The new, elevated ceremony will celebrate the breadth of composition and its contribution to contemporary culture, recognising composers working across genres and disciplines, from film, television and video games to concert halls, community engagement and live performance.
A new category recognising original documentary scores has been introduced for the first time this year, bringing the number of nominated categories to nine.
Alongside the nine nominated categories, four Gift of the Academy special awards will be presented, including the Ivor Novello Award for Innovation to Max Richter. The Academy will also induct a composer into Fellowship, the highest honour it bestows.
The Ivors Composer Awards will be hosted by broadcaster Petroc Trelawny, with BBC Radio 3 as broadcast partner. Highlights from The Ivors Composer Awards ceremony will be broadcast across BBC Radio 3’s schedule, in programmes such as New Music Show (21/11/2026), Sound of Cinema (21/11/2026) as well as on Breakfast and In Tune.
The nominated works were composed by British, Irish and UK resident composers and heard by UK audiences for the first time. Judged by composers from across The Ivors Academy’s membership, an Ivor Novello Award represents peer recognition at the highest level.
Lord Neri, CEO of The Ivors Academy, said: “It’s a pleasure to announce the nominees for The Ivors Composer Awards 2026, our new ceremony celebrating excellence in composition. They represent some of the most exciting and innovative British and Irish composers. Their creativity makes an extraordinary contribution to our culture and creative industries, and these nominations recognise the skill, originality and impact of their work.”
Tom Gray, Chair of The Ivors Academy, said: “An outstanding composition changes everything. Across games, films, programmes, festivals and concerts, music enriches our understanding, evokes emotional subtleties and opens new ways of experiencing the world. This year’s nominees demonstrate that power in abundance. Congratulations to them all.”
Julian Nott, Chair of the PRS Members’ Council, said: “I’d like to offer my congratulations to all the extraordinary composers whose work has been nominated. 33 PRS members are among those nominees, spanning classical and choral music composers to creators working in film, television, games, performance and community composition. Their talent, originality and ambition deserve the highest recognition. We’re proud to champion and celebrate their achievements and the joy their music brings to audiences everywhere.”
Sam Jackson, Controller, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Proms, said: “We are delighted to continue BBC Radio 3's broadcast partnership with The Ivors Composer Awards, which shine a spotlight on the extraordinary creativity and craft of composers working across so many different fields today. This year's nominations showcase the remarkable breadth of contemporary music-making, from concert works to music created for television, film, video games, and vital works at the heart of education and community projects. As the UK's largest commissioner of new music, the BBC is proud to champion the artists whose work enriches our cultural life. We look forward to sharing highlights from the awards with our listeners across Radio 3's schedules, in programmes such as The New Music Show, Sound of Cinema, Breakfast and In Tune. Congratulations to all this year's nominees."
The nominated works represent the scale, variety and innovation of music composition across genres and disciplines while also recognising the importance of commissioners and developers. Across the screen categories, video game developers IO Interactive, Housemarque and Infuse Studio and screen companies including Netflix, BBC, Sky Studios, ITV Studios, Amazon MGM Studios, Film4 and S4C all commissioned original scores which contributed to the storytelling of their productions. Across the live performance categories, commissioners range from festivals including Three Choirs Festival, Boyne Music Festival and New Music Biennial, to venues such as the Royal Opera House and Barbican Centre, through to ensembles including Aurora Orchestra, Leeds Guild of Singers, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Ulster Orchestra and more.
Best Community and Participation Composition with ABRSM celebrates original music created for voluntary, amateur or youth performers. Nominations this year go to Samuel D Loveless for his multi-format neurodivergent-focussed work Benches, Ailís Ní Ríain for her brass band piece Holocene, and Brian Irvine for How We Stand, How We Breathe, a collaboration with a diverse range of individuals and groups across Northern Ireland.
Best Large-Scale Composition is open to works written for 13 or more performers. Nominees include Anna Thorvaldsdottir for her cello concerto Before We Fall, Robert Laidlow for his tone poem for orchestra Exoplanets, Hania Rani for her piano concerto Non Fiction, Laura Bowler for The White Book – a work inspired by Han Kang’s book of the same name – and Cassie Kinoshi’s [UNTITLED] for ensemble and solo turntables.
The brand-new Best Original Documentary Score category aims to recognise the creative contribution original music can have to the telling and impact of real stories. The nominees for this inaugural award are Richard Collins and Patrick Jonsson for their score for A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough, Thomas Farnon for David Frost Vs..., Benjamin Kwasi Burrell for Grenfell: Uncovered, Jessica Dannheisser for The Last Musician of Auschwitz and Hannah Peel for Underland.
Best Original Film Score and Best Original Television Score are categories historically celebrated at The Ivors, which have been moved to join the rest of the composition categories at The Ivors Composer Awards for the first time. First-time nominees Ioana Șelaru and Siôn Trefor are nominated in the Film category for their soundtrack to Welsh drama film Effi O Blaenau, combining acoustic instruments, synthesisers and vocals to create an atmospheric sound world. Former Ivor Novello Award winners Daniel Pemberton and Oliver Coates are also nominated in this category for their scores to Project Hail Mary and The History of Sound respectively. In the Television category Carly Paradis is recognised for her soundtrack to ITVX true crime series Believe Me, alongside Siôn Trefor for the Netflix thriller Legends and Patrick Jonsson for BBC comedy-drama series Mint.
The Best Original Video Game Score category recognises the specialist skills required for games soundtracks where music must remain coherent and emotionally compelling even as the experience changes in response to play. This year’s nominated scores demonstrate distinctive creative voices and accomplished musical craft, deepening narrative, heightening emotion and responding effectively to interactive worlds. The Flight (Alexis Smith and Joe Henson) are nominated for 007 First Light, Sam Slater is nominated for Saros and Pav Gekko is nominated for Spirit of the North 2.
Best Small-Scale Composition is open to solo or ensembles of fewer than 13 performers. Five composers have been nominated for this category, including Ben Nobuto for Hope Spiral, Sasha Scott for Night Owl, Ruth Morley for Reef, Alex Paxton for Scrunchy Touch Sweetly To Fall (Kite and Finger Run) and Hania Rani for Shining.
The Best Vocal and Choral Composition category features five nominees. Anselm McDonnell is nominated for his work A Taste of Trapped Sun, written for the BBC Singers reflecting on the 2016 signing of the Paris Agreement, and Stephen McNeff’s Ballads of a Bogman – a song cycle for tenor and piano with poems by Sigerson Clifford – is also nominated. Other nominees in this category include Richard Blackford for The Black Lake, Martin Suckling for Songs of Sleep and Prophecy, and Deirdre McKay for Litany to the Magdalene Dead, a song commemorating the women who died in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries.
Best Original Score for Performance recognises music written for live performance and the distinctive creative contribution it makes in that setting. There are three nominees for this category, including Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Lee Hall for their contemporary three-act opera Festen, Richard Ayres for his theatrical journey into the inner workings of an orchestra No. 59 (Dr Frompou’s Anatomical Study of an Orchestra), and Bushra El-Turk's music theatre work Oum – A Son’s Quest for his Mother.
The Ivors Composer Awards are held in London on 17 November, where winners will receive an iconic Ivor Novello Award statuette and join a roll call of the most accomplished composers including George Benjamin, Judith Weir, James MacMillan, Errollyn Wallen, Stephen Sondheim, Anne Dudley, John Barry, Debbie Wiseman, Julian Joseph, John Dankworth, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Anoushka Shankar, Brian Eno, Gavin Bryars and many more.
The new ceremony will be part of The Ivors Composer Week, taking place 16-20 November, to broaden the celebration and empowerment of composers further. The first speakers have been announced for The Ivors Academy Composer Summit, taking place on 18 November, with acclaimed composers and leading music industry experts joining the line-up.
