This year, we are pleased to support five composer-performer partnerships with RPS Thea Musgrave Composition Grants, and four ensembles and festivals with RPS Thea Musgrave Performance Grants. You can read more about these grants, and this year's recipients, below:

Throughout Thea’s career, she has treasured having dedicated time to shape ideas with musicians. RPS Thea Musgrave Composition Grants support composers writing a new work for an established solo performer, duo, or chamber ensemble – not only contributing to their commission, but within each grant vitally giving them and their intended performers some means to devote focused workshop and rehearsal time to its creation. This year RPS Thea Musgrave Composition Grants have been awarded to:

David Gorton writing for flautist Carla Rees

Emma-Ruth Richards writing for soprano Jennifer France

Robert Laidlow writing for baritone Peter Brathwaite

Samantha Fernando writing for viol consort Fretwork

Stuart MacRae writing for mezzo soprano Beth Taylor

Thea’s remarkable catalogue of compositions spans decades and is a veritable treasure trove for performers and programmers. We are committed to encouraging more musicians and musical organisations to delve in, discover and embrace Thea’s works, and share them with UK audiences. RPS Thea Musgrave Performance Grants help performers, ensembles, festivals and venues to put Thea’s music at the heart of their UK programming, and distinctively promote it to captivate audiences. This year, RPS Thea Musgrave Performance Grants have been awarded to:

Elgar Festival
Worcester, Saturday 23 May – Sunday 31 May 2026
Each year the Elgar Festival, taking place in and around Worcester, celebrates not only its namesake, but also the music of a featured living British composer. In 2026, the festival showcases Thea Musgrave as their Visiting Composer, featuring a range of her works across three concerts with the English Symphony Orchestra, as well as recitals by world-renowned guest artists. 

Hebrides Ensemble
Wigmore Hall, January 2027
Scottish-based Hebrides Ensemble present a three-concert day focused on Thea Musgrave at London’s Wigmore Hall. Each concert centrally features Thea’s music, including such works as Pierrot, Canta Canta and Night Windows, flanked by her fellow Scottish composers. Further performances and a new album placing Thea’s work alongside short musical ‘birthday cards’ by other Scottish composers are planned in the lead-up to Thea’s centenary.

London Symphony Orchestra
Barbican, 11 December 2025 and Bristol Beacon, 13 December 2025
One of the UK’s leading symphony orchestras performs Thea Musgrave’s Phoenix Rising in two concerts with their Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano.  Written in 1997, Phoenix Rising is one of Thea’s most electrifying and adventurous scores: an incandescent trailblazer opening a concert that features other great British repertoire by William Walton and Ralph Vaughan Williams. 

Marsyas Trio in collaboration with mezzo sopranoLotte Betts-Dean
Leeds University, 29 April 2026

The acclaimed trio and award-winning mezzo soprano join forces to create a celebration of Thea Musgrave’s music. The Trio’s Thea Musgrave Day takes place at Leeds University, working side-by-side with its students to engage the next generation of music-makers with Thea’s works, including Chamber Concerto No.2, Aria, Primavera, Taking Turns, and Orfeo V. The ensemble, together and individually, plan to feature Thea’s works in concerts through their programming in 2026-28 including a Scottish music societies tour, and other universities where they plan to emulate the initial Thea Musgrave Day.

We are grateful to composer Thea Musgrave and her husband, conductor Peter Mark, for their generous support of these grants, and to RPS Members, who make all of our charitable work possible.