New Music Award 2010 winner Announced

The winner of the New Music Award 2010 is The Organ of Corti, by liminal. Last night the PRS judging panel awarded liminal the £50,000 prize money to realise their pioneering new work.

liminal is composer David Prior and architect Frances Crow. The Organ of Corti, named after part of the inner ear, recycles existing sounds in already sound-saturated environments.

The group hopes to challenge expectations of what might constitute a piece of music with their composition, offering new ways of listening to what is around rather than adding sounds to the environment.

The entry was chosen from a shortlist of five ideas by a panel of judges comprising music journalist Paul Morley, artist Martin Creed, singer and DJ Bishi, composer and pianist Michael Finnissy and pianist and conductor Joanna MacGregor.

The judges were inspired by the ability of The Organ of Corti to:
'challenge the notion of what it is to listen'
'remind us of the value of sound and how beautiful it can be'
‘provide an antidote to the sound saturated, digital world in which we live’

The work will premiere at the City of London Festival in July 2011 and then travel to the Tebay Gorge in the Lake District, the Cotswold Water Park in Wiltshire and Diglis Weir in Worcester for three further performances.