The National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists (STF) have announced the winners of the Female Commissioning Scheme. The scheme offers established and emerging female and female-identifying musicians and composers a new platform to create work. This year saw it expand to include new strands – ‘Recordings’ and ‘Projects’ – the former to support a high-quality professional recording project, and the latter to support high-quality music projects.

The recipients of the award scheme this year include: composers Éna Brennan and Amelia Clarkson, Finola Merivale, who received the Music Recording Award, and Bray trio Wyvern Lingo, who received the Music Project Award.

The Female Commissioning Scheme is part of a five-year partnership initiative with the National Concert Hall and Sounding the Feminists. It was established in 2018 and supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, under the Creative Ireland programme, and makes significant contribution to promoting work by female musicians and composers, with co-funding confirmed in the form of €20,000 a year, over five years.

“This funding has been a great support to female composers in the music industry," said Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media. "I would like to congratulate the winners of the Female Commissioning Scheme as part of this initiative. This scheme offers a fantastic platform for established and emerging female musicians and composers to create, record and produce new music projects.”

Speaking of the initiative Maura McGrath, Chair of the National Concert Hall said: "The restrictions posed by Covid 19 have had serious adverse effects on all sectors of the arts, so supporting our creative community is more important than ever. Today we are delighted to announce the winners of the third instalment of this important initiative with Sounding the Feminists, which is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media under the Creative Ireland Programme, to whom we are very grateful.

"We are very pleased to be in a position to provide valuable funding to this year’s deserving recipients, who have each displayed outstanding skill and creativity. The NCH together with STF will continue to create opportunities for and promote the work of female and female-identifying composers and musicians in Ireland, across musical genres. This partnership initiative is central to achieving this aim”.