The winners of the Ban Bam Commission & Development Award, a new scheme for female Irish composers working in jazz and improvised music, have been announced. They are harper Úna Monaghan, violinist Cora Venus Lunny and singer Sue Rynhart.  

The new scheme, run by Improvised Music Company and Moving on Music, will see the three artists receive a commissioning award of €2,500 plus performance opportunities, and they will also take part in a development programme with the two organisations.

Lunny​ is an improvising violinist, violist, vocalist and composer. A member of Yurodny and Fovea Hex, they frequently perform with Crash Ensemble, solo as a free improviser and in a duo with Izumi Kimura. Commenting on the announcement, she said:

I’m thrilled, surprised and delighted to have the honour of being chosen for this award from amongst such a heavily accomplished pool of talent – the support will make an enormous impact on my life as an artist. I’m so grateful that I’ll get to realise my musical idea, and can’t wait to work on getting it performed safely with some of my favourite musicians.

Monaghan is a harper and sound artist from Belfast, whose work examines Irish traditional music alongside experimental music practices, improvisation and interactive technologies. Last year, she became the first recipient of the National Concert Hall’s Liam O’Flynn award, resulting in a performance at the Tradition Now festival.

Dublin-based singer Rynhart blends the genres of jazz, folk and classical in her work. She has performed with Dylan Rynhart’s ensemble Fuzzy Logic and has released two albums, Crossings (2014) and Signals (2017). She commented that she was ‘very much looking forward to the composition period and the ​12 months of bespoke creative and career development support and consultation’.

‘Our expert panel certainly had a difficult task given the breadth and quality of the applicants overall’, said IMC Director Kenneth Killeen. ‘With many strong applications from artists as yet unknown to us, this process has been fruitful on many levels, not just for the three deserving winners. Ban Bam exists, ultimately, to raise the profile of as many female and gender-minority composers as possible.​’

Moving on Music’s Creative Producer Paula McColl commented:

This is just one small step but we hope it will help stimulate further development opportunities, raise awareness of gender imbalance issues within jazz and improvised music, and create more connections among the female and gender-minority artists.

For more on the award, visit www.improvisedmusic.ie.