Louth Contemporary Music Society, KeyChange and Borealis have been nominated for a Classical:NEXT Innovation Award.

Classical:NEXT is an annual trade fair, conference and showcase for the classical music world, held in de Doelen in Rotterdam in May.

The longlist for the award contains 37 nominees selected by members of an international nominating committee. The three winners are chosen by attendees of Classical:NEXT and will be announced on 18 May at the next event. Last year’s winners were the Aurora Orchestra (UK), carbon-free Lahti Symphony Orchestra (Finland), and Les Talens Lyriques – T@lenschool (France).

Among the nominees for 2019 are Louth Contemporary Music Festival, the director of which, Eamonn Quinn, won the Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music in 2017; KeyChange, a campaign for gender balance in the music industry; and Tine Rude and Peter Meanwell from the Borealis experimental music festival in Norway.

Also nominated are the Sound new music festival in Scotland; Ana Ablamonova, founder of Operomanija in Lithuania; musician and composer Charlotte Hug from Switzerland; the Esmé Quartet from South Korea; and the Klassikatähed television contest from Estonia.

The nominating committee includes music journalists from 26 countries including Michael Dervan from the Irish Times, Annemarie Peeters from De Standaard in Belgium and Bastian Zimmermann from POSITIONEN magazine in Germany.

See the full list of nominees below. For more, visit www.classicalnext.com.

Classical:NEXT Innovation Award longlist 2019
Ana Ablamonova (Lithuania)
Ana María Romano – Festival En Tiempo Real (Colombia)
Asia Society Hong Kong – Alice Mong, executive director (Hong Kong, China SAR)
Brigitta Muntendorf (Germany)
Charlotte Hug (Switzerland)
Claire Edwardes (Australia)
Claron McFadden (Netherlands)
Claudia Toni (Brazil)
Esmé Quartet (South Korea)
Fondation Royaumont (France)
Imago Mundi (Belgium)
InDONNAtiόn (female vocal ensemble) (Greece)
Jane Sheldon and Jessica Aszodi – Resonant Bodies (Australia)
Klassikatähed (Estonia)
Ligia Amadio (Brazil)
Louth Contemporary Music Society (LCMS) (Ireland)
Luna Composition Lab (USA)
Lydia Rilling (Luxembourg)
Martha de Francisco (Canada)
Marzena Diakun (Poland)
Methexis Ensemble – Project ‘Women Composing in the Balkans’ (Greece, in cooperation with Romania)
Dr. Milagros O. How (The Philippines)
Minna Pensola (Finland)
Neeta Helms (USA)
Nemeth Quartet (Turkey)
Patricia Martínez (Argentina)
PRS Foundation – Keychange (UK, international)
Riikka Talvitie (Finland)
Sarah Kirkland Snider (USA)
Ms Shuang Zou – Beijing Music Festival (China)
Simone Keller (Switzerland)
Sound festival, Aberdeen (Scotland)
Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship (TCCF) (USA)
Tine Rude and Peter Meanwell – Borealis Festival for Experimental Music (Norway)
Umculo – Shirley Apthorp (South Africa)
Valeria Valle Martínez – Resonancia Femenina (Chile)
MadWomenFest (Spain)