british composer awards new category

applications forms for the 2009 British Composer Awards landed today, and I'm delighted to see that they have introduced a new category - Contemporary Jazz Composition. As someone who has commissioned, supported and promoted jazz composers to create new work or develop new collaborations over recent years, albeit in my own small way, it is great news for the more substantial fruits of their work to gain appropriate recognition rather than be a square peg in the round hole of other categories. That said, Gwilym Simcock's 2006 Lichfield Suite stood up strongly on its own when it was shortlisted in the Wind Band or Brass Band category in 2007.