National Lottery Community Fund Support

12th March 2022

The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Beacons Song for the Commonwealth

Supported by the National Lottery Community Fund

Find out about our Platinum Jubilee Beacons, Song for the Commonwealth Celebrations

We are delighted to receive funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to help support our work for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Beacons Song for the Commonwealth.

The project has been running for nearly a year already, but as we approach Jubilee Day we were delighted to receive help to ensure this once in a lifetime event is able to run as smoothly as possible.

The Commonwealth Resounds is run entirely by volunteers who work tirelessly to try and help make a difference. We receive no central funding for our work and the difference this new support from the Community Fund will make to our project is huge. Our aim is to link up a choir with every one of the fifteen hundred beacons throughout the UK and across the Commonwealth. With this number of participants, the logistics and administration are quite a challenge for a small charity like ourselves!

We are delighted and extremely grateful to receive this funding from the National Lottery Community Fund. It will enable us to take this project to the next level and support choirs and music across the Commonwealth.

We hope that the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee will inspire choirs to gather and reform after this global pandemic. This promises to bring a moment of hope after a dark few years for all choirs and communities involved.

Alison Cox OBE

Founder and Trustee, Commonwealth Resounds

Winner of the CICA Announced

12th March 2022

Overall Winner of the Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022

We are delighted to announce the winner of the Commonwealth International Award 2022 is Devon Packer from Canada.

Devon Packer is a 16 year old pianist who lives in Montréal, Canada. He has been studying piano at the McGill Conservatory of Music since the age of 5. His first major performance was at the age of 7 when he debuted as a soloist with the Orchestra Symphonique de l’Isle playing Haydn’s “Divertimento in C Major”. He has appeared at multiple venues in Canada, Europe, and the United States, including New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall.

Devon is also an accomplished arranger and composer. He had his first composition, “The Fantastical World of Camelot”, published in 2015 when he was 10 years old. Since then, he has participated in the Purcell School’s Online Composition Academy which offers training to young people all over the world. He has written for numerous ensembles, including the Dionysus Ensemble. In 2021 alone, he was shortlisted for two international composition competitions, being the only finalist to represent Canada in both. In May 2021, he won the Young Adjudicator’s Award in the Commonwealth International Composition Award for his composition “Oceania”. Also in 2021, he received a special commendation in the CICA Grand Final.

What it means to me:
This award means the world to me! It is a tremendous honour and a great validation of all the hard work that I have put into developing my own compositional voice. In previous works, there have been strong echoes of other composers that I admire. With this piece “…reaching…”, I feel I have finally written a piece that I can say is in my own style! I worked very hard to ensure that every single instrument had a rhythmic and a melodic purpose. In particular, I focused on the percussion, which doesn’t often get a big part in classical compositions.

Plans for the future:
I plan to keep composing! If any more opportunities arise out of this wonderful competition, I will embrace them wholeheartedly and dive straight in. There’s definitely a number of things I want to explore over the coming summer, like different instrumentations and compositional forms. I also want to work on my idiomatic writing; that is, writing pieces that play well on the instruments I write them for. Aside from that, I’ll keep pursuing my piano studies, as well exploring the world of percussion.

How composition is a part of my life:
I’ve been composing casually for around 6 years. I remember one of the first pieces I wrote came from improvisations on the piano, and I just HAD to write it down! Ever since then, I’ve refined my craft, from improvisations to fully planned out theme development. Until recently, I was focusing mostly on piano but I really got a chance to develop my compositional skills when quarantine started, causing live performances to be cancelled. It allowed me to focus on the world of composition, since composition is an art that can be practised in isolation.

What’s next for me:
The next thing that’s coming up for me compositionally is a performance of one of my works for the Grande première des futures étoiles (“Grand Premiere of Future Stars”), taking place this June at Place des Arts in Montreal, Canada. I will be on piano, accompanying a professional soprano, performing “The Dragon-Fly”, based on a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. I am super excited for this amazing opportunity to showcase my compositions to a live audience for the first time in two years!

Devon Packer

Winner, Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022

“…reaching…”

by Devon Packer

Performed by: Akito Goto – Cello, Enyuan Khong – Violin, Francesca Lombardelli – Percussion, Jack Welch – Flute.

Conducted by: Philip Dutton
Recorded by: Tom Bell

Winners of the Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022

12th March 2022

Winner of the Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022

Watch the whole Final here!

We are delighted to announce the winner of the Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022. The Grand Final was held in the Princess Alexandra Hall, Royal Over-Seas League last week.

Two panels of adjudicators made up of distinguished professionals and young emerging composers studied the entries carefully and announced the awards.

As well as the overall winner, we are also delighted to announce two other awards; the Young Adjudicators’ Award and the Audience Prize.

Overall Winner

Devon Packer, Canada.

“…reaching…”

by Devon Packer

Performed by: Akito Goto – Cello, Enyuan Khong – Violin, Francesca Lombardelli – Percussion, Jack Welch – Flute.

Conducted by: Philip Dutton
Recorded by: Tom Bell

This award means the world to me! It is a tremendous honour and a great validation of all the hard work that I have put into developing my own compositional voice. In previous works, there have been strong echoes of other composers that I admire. With this piece “…reaching…”, I feel I have finally written a piece that I can say is in my own style! I worked very hard to ensure that every single instrument had a rhythmic and a melodic purpose. In particular, I focused on the percussion, which doesn’t often get a big part in classical compositions.

Devon Packer

Winner, Commonwealth International Composition Award 2022

Find out more here

The Young Adjudicators Award

Felix Penna, France

“Sdrijn”

by Felix Penna

Performed by: Akito Goto – Cello, Enyuan Khong – Violin, Francesca Lombardelli – Percussion, Jack Welch – Flute.

Conducted by: Philip Dutton
Recorded by: Tom Bell

The Audience Prize

Jacob Abela, Malta

“Kaleidescope”

by Jacob Abela

Performed by: Akito Goto – Cello, Enyuan Khong – Violin, Francesca Lombardelli – Percussion, Jack Welch – Flute.

Conducted by: Philip Dutton
Recorded by: Tom Bell

Commonwealth Natural Wonders in Music

27th February 2022

Get involved! Dionysus Ensemble Creating Natural Wonders in Music

Find out more here

The Commonwealth Resounds ensemble in association, The Dionysus Ensemble, are creating a Commonwealth-wide video celebrating the natural wonders of the Commonwealth through music & art. Musicians, artists, photographers, creatives & composers – every age, ability, instrument & art form are very welcome!

This video will feature a new piece of music created by Commonwealth musicians, composers & creatives and illustrated by Commonwealth artists & photographers, to demonstrate the variety & wide array of incredible wild & scenic locations around the Commonwealth, celebrating & sharing the diverse environmental riches in the Commonwealth.

A contributor doesn’t have to be a performer – you could be an artist or creative illustrating the video, you could be involved in composing & creating the music, you could be a performer on the video. Your music could be recorded natural sounds, traditional music from your country or practised performance from notated music provided by The Dionysus Ensemble

CICA audience vote

24th February 2022

2022 Commonwealth International Composition Award GRAND FINAL!

The CICA Final was held on 4th March 2022

Voting is now over

For the full list of winners click here

The Commonwealth International Composition Award

Young people from all over the world submitted their works to the 2021 / 2022 Commonwealth International Composition Award. There were many wonderful entries, and it was difficult to choose a shortlist of ten pieces.

These will be performed in the Grand Final on Friday 4th March at the Princess Alexandra Hall, Royal Over-Seas League.

We warmly invite you all to select your favourite piece, to help us choose the winner of The Audience Prize Listen to each of the compositions below and vote here on this page!