Steel bands, skateboarding and string quartets all feature among the 20 commissions to be produced as part of the inaugural New Music Biennial. 

The initiative was launched in January this year by the PRS for Music Foundation and funds the development of 20 works to be performed throughout the UK. Composers were invited to submit ideas that included an international dimension to tie in with Glasgow’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2014. The winning entries were announced this morning. 

All 20 pieces will be performed at weekend events in 2014 held at London’s Southbank Centre (July 4-6) and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music (August 2-3). For those unable to attend, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast all the works, and contemporary music label NMC will release them as digital downloads.

Many of the commissions embrace Scottish heritage, as well as the international community of the Commonwealth and the ideals it aims to embody, for example Bermuda-born composer Gabriel Jackson is writing a work setting poems about island life by both Scottish and Caribbean poets. Cross-genre and unusual collaborations are also a defining feature of many commissions, including a work for jazz musician Gwilym Simcock and the City of London Sinfonia, and another uniting clarinettist Michael Collins, composer Samuel Bordoli, Tête à Tête Opera and skateboarding. 

Folk trio Lau will write a piece for them to perform with the Elysian Quartet, while another piece draws on a steel band, concertina player Alistair Anderson, a DJ and a clog dancer. Another work will see Matthew Herbert encapsulate the stories of 20 pianos from around the world, whether Steinways at famous locations or out-of-tune family pianos, all to be sampled and performed on a virtual table-top piano using soft- and hardware created by the Radiophonic Workshop. 

As chairman of the judges Roger Wright, controller of Radio 3 and Proms director, said at this morning’s announcement, held at London’s Southbank: 'People don't put music in boxes like they used to'. 

Or as singer/songwriter and member of the judging panel Cerys Matthews nicely put it: 'Can't wait to hear the new ferryboat songs from the Scottish highlands and a choir singing on a skateboard ramp.'

Follow link for more information about the New Music Biennial.