The Arts Foundation announce the four Shortlisted Artists of the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2026 for Music.
This year’s Music Award supports exceptional composers scoring contemporary classical across genres, including electronic and interdisciplinary practice. Meet the Shortlist:
Nneka Cummins is a composer and producer, their practice has a focus on groove-inspired music which uses extended techniques to add colour and percussiveness and explores the idea of deconstruction and re-examination through sampled electronics.
Cassie Kinoshi is a Mercury Prize-nominated (2019) and Ivors Academy Award-winning (2018) Berlin/London-based composer, arranger and alto-saxophonist with a focus on creating multidisciplinary and genre-blending performance work.
William Marsey is a UK-based composer. His music has been described as vivid, unsettling, distinctive and strangely touching. William’s music has been commissioned and performed internationally, including by the LA Phil and BBC Arts, with performances by Royal Northern Sinfonia, The Hallé, and Thomas Adès.
Sasha Scott is a composer, electronic artist and violinist born and based in London. Her work moves between acoustic and electronic, often merging the two to create hypnotic, dark, metallic sound worlds that blur the lines between the organic and the synthetic.
With thanks to our independent Jury members: Suzy Klein, Head of Arts and Classical Music TV, BBC; Rakhi Singh, Violinist, creative director and composer; and Tom Service, Writer, Journalist and Broadcaster, who said:
“It has been extraordinarily humbling reading about and listening to the work of musicians nationwide. The calibre of work was so high. The shortlisted artists, Nneka, Cassie, William and Sasha all share, in different ways, a sense that they are at a pivot point in their careers, asking critical questions about the essence of contemporary classical music. The wide range of voices and experiences that the whole shortlist represents is fantastic. It highlights why awards like this are so vital in the landscape today. As a jury, we are hugely excited to follow their respective next steps.”
The Arts Foundation has a long history of supporting music, and Mary Jane Edwards, Director of The Arts Foundation, says:
“The four shortlisted music artists represent the exceptional calibre and ambition of contemporary classical composition in the UK. In a field where composers are too often hidden from public recognition, each artist brings a distinctive voice and a bold commitment to shaping the future of music. We are delighted to support their respective career trajectories.”
The winning Fellow, receiving £20,000, will be revealed at an Award Ceremony on 2 February 2026, with all Shortlisted Artists awarded £1,000 towards their artistic practice.
The Arts Foundation is a registered charity that supports individual artists and creatives in the UK with unconditional financial Fellowships of £20,000 through the Arts Foundation Futures Awards. Since it was founded in 1993, the Arts Foundation has awarded over £2 million to the most promising artists in the UK at a pivotal moment in their careers to enable them to concentrate on their creative development, experiment, and realise their artistic potential.
The Music Award is generously supported in partnership with The David Collins Foundation.