PRS Foundation, together with Creative Scotland, Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Arts Council of Ireland announce the UK and Ireland-based organisations, music groups and composers that will receive funding through the co-commissioning and touring programme Beyond Borders. The 5 exciting collaborative cross-border projects are:
- Emma Lloyd (Scotland) commissioned by The Night With... (Scotland) in partnership with Kaleidoscope Night (Republic of Ireland), Canolfan a Theatr Soar (Wales) and Old Town New Music (Scotland) to present the “Emma Lloyd album tour” for a new solo album for violin and electronics featuring work by six contemporary composers.
- Julie Fowlis (Scotland) commissioned by Celtic Connections (Glasgow Life) (Scotland) in partnership with TradFest Belfast (Northern Ireland) and a festival in Dublin (Republic of Ireland) to present “Allt II: Cuimhne” exploring the links of music and language across three territories with a shared history of Gaelic culture, through Allt's orchestrations of new Gaelic songs.
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Neil Luck and Chihiro Ono (England) commissioned by Birmingham Record Company (England) in partnership with Kirkos Ensemble (Republic of Ireland) and COMA Glasgow (Scotland) to present the “MenCon Tour” of the radical reinterpretation of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Op.64 devised with the ensemble ARCO.
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Lulu Manning (England) commissioned by Serious Trust (England) in partnership with Llais Festival (Wales), Moving On Music (Northern Ireland) and Glasgow Jazz Festival (Scotland) to present “The Take Five National Tour” bring together four brilliant artists who have taken part in Take Five to reimagine the music they originally wrote for the project to be performed by a quartet.
- Trevor Mathison (England) commissioned by purge.xxx (England) in partnership with Institute of Contemporary Arts (England), Centre for Contemporary Arts (Scotland) and Chapter (Wales) to present “Black Industrial/Noise”, with three performances in the former industrial heartlands of England, Scotland, and Wales, facilitating new collaborations and recordings, serialised and in boxset form, with a distinctive group of artists exploring different notions of Black Industrial/Noise.
Elizabeth Sills, Grants & Programmes Manager at PRS Foundation said, “Huge congratulations to all the organisations and composers selected for these 5 exciting projects. As 2025 sees Beyond Borders marks its 15th year, I very much look forward to watching these latest collaborative projects come together and reach, inspire and entertain audiences across the UK and Ireland over the next 12 months.”
The Beyond Borders awardees. From left to right: Julie Fowlis (by Wild Soul Photography); Lulu Manning; Trevor Mathison; Emma Lloyd; a performance of MenCon.
Beyond Borders was established in 2010 to support high quality co-commissions and tours, stimulating collaboration between composers, performance groups and music organisations across the four different UK countries and, since 2014, the Republic of Ireland.
Previous Beyond Borders successes have included ‘Songs of Separation’, a collective of 10 female English and Scottish folk musicians whose album won ‘Best Album’ at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2017, and David Fennessy's ‘Panopticon’, commissioned by Hebrides Ensemble and Psappha, which won the Scottish Award for New Music for Small Scale work. Huw Watkins and Stuart McRae’s operas ‘In the Locked Room’ and ‘Ghost Patrol’ commissioned by Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera received a 4**** review in The Guardian whilst Robert Jarvis’s ‘aroundNorth’ sound installation which uses the movement of the stars to create a mesmerising sound map of the universe, is now permanently installed in the grounds of commissioning organisation, the Armagh Observatory, following its Beyond Borders tour.
Beyond Borders is a co-commissioning and touring programme run in partnership with Creative Scotland using National Lottery funding, Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
To find out more about the programme, please visit: https://prsfoundation.com/funding-support/funding-for-organisations/beyond-borders.
Background
About PRS Foundation
Since 2000 PRS Foundation has given more than £49 million to over 9,100 new music initiatives. 6 out of the last 7 Mercury Music Prize winners had received PRS Foundation support (including recent winner English Teacher) and the charity has supported BRITS, RPS, AIM and Ivors Award-winners.
PRS Foundation supports outstanding talent from all backgrounds, covering the whole of the UK and all genres, with grantee success stories including Little Simz, Wolf Alice, Dave, Sam Fender, Years & Years, AJ Tracey, Anna Meredith, Yola, Glass Animals, Ezra Collective, Jade Bird, Ghetts, Shiva Feshareki, Sarathy Korwar, Floating Points, Nadine Shah, The Fanatix, Imogen Heap, IDLES, Kae Tempest, Kojey Radical and Emily Burns.
Widely respected as an inclusive, collaborative and proactive funding body, PRS Foundation supports an exceptional range of new music activity through direct grants to music creators and through support for pioneering organisations, including venues, festivals, promoters and other talent development organisations. PRS Foundation founded the Women Make Music fund, co-founded global gender equality initiative, Keychange and most recently launched the POWER UP initiative to tackle anti-Black racism in music. www.prsfoundation.com
About Creative Scotland
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports culture and creativity across all parts of Scotland, distributing funding provided by the Scottish Government and The National Lottery, which, now in its 30th year, has supported over 14,600 projects with more than £501.9 million in funding through Creative Scotland and its predecessor, the Scottish Arts Council Further information at creativescotland.com. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Learn more about the value of art and creativity in Scotland and join in at www.ourcreativevoice.scot
About Arts Council of Wales
Arts Council of Wales is responsible for funding and developing the arts in Wales. We believe the arts are central to the life and wellbeing of the nation. We invest public funding, using these funds to create opportunities for people to enjoy and take part in the arts.
Our principal sponsor is the Welsh Government. We also distribute funding from the National Lottery and raise additional money where we can from a variety of public and private sector sources. Working together with the Welsh Government, we are able to show how the arts are helping to meet the Government’s policy ambitions.
About Arts Council Ireland
The Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon is the Irish government agency for developing the arts. We work in partnership with artists, arts organisations, public policy makers and others to build a central place for the arts in Irish life. The Council recognises that the arts have a central and distinctive contribution to make to our evolving society. Established in 1951, to stimulate public interest in and promote the knowledge, appreciation and practice of the arts, the Council is an autonomous body, which is under the aegis of the Department of Arts, Heritage & Gaeltacht.
For further information on the Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon please visit www.artscouncil.ie.
About Arts Council of Northern Ireland
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is the lead funding and development agency for the Arts. Our funding enables artists and arts organisations to increase access to the arts across society and deliver great art that is within everyone’s reach. National Lottery-funded arts programmes are bringing communities closer together, tackling prejudice, racism, isolation and mental health and improving emotional wellbeing. www.artscouncil-ni.org.
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland Lottery Fund distributes a share of the money raised by The National Lottery for good causes.
- Over £30m is raised for good causes every week
- More than 500,000 projects have been funded
- Over £36bn has been raised since the Lottery started
Media contatcs
Liam McMahon: [email protected] / +44 (0) 7834 625 985
For further information about Beyond Borders please contact:
Elizabeth Sills: [email protected] / +44 (0) 20 3741 4828