Jonty Lefroy Watt (Music, 2018) has been awarded the Henfrey Prize for Composition 2021. Jonty set to music the words of fellow St Hugh’s student Annie Fan (Law, 2018). He chose the poem, ‘Self Portrait with Rain’ which comes from Annie’s collection ‘Woundsong’, recently published by The Verve poetry press.
This prize runs annually and is open to all current Oxford students as well as recent graduates. The competition involved three rounds of workshops working with virtuosic professional new music ensemble, Trio Atem, and culminated in a concert held in the Bernard Sunley Lecture Theatre at St Catherine’s College on Friday 11th of June. Compositions from four Oxford students were performed twice at the concert by Trio Atem, following which composer Judith Weir, Master of the Queen’s Music, selected one student to be the recipient of this year’s £1,000 prize.
Commenting on his win, Jonty said: ‘It has been a privilege to work with the incomparable musicians of Trio Atem, whose commitment to the project throughout both the workshops and the final concert was invaluable. I am of course over the moon to have been selected as the winner, but the real joy came from being a part of such a wonderful occasion and working alongside such inspiring composers and musicians.’
The Henfrey Prize for Composition was established in 2017 by St Catherine’s Domus Fellow, Dr Anthony Henfrey, and has been adjudicated by some of Britain’s top composers including Mark Simpson, Emily Howard and the late Anthony Payne.
