The Mousehole Cat ballet and the company which performed it have been selected as finalists in the first ever British Composers Award.

Commissioned earlier this year by the Duchy Ballet Company under it’s artistic director Kay Jones, composer Ian Hughes created a ballet based on Antonia Barber’s timeless legend The Mousehole Cat and it is now one of three on the shortlist for the stageworks category of the awards.

Choreographed by Terrence Etheridge, the ballet was premiered to capacity audiences at the Hall For Cornwall and featured the Cornish Sinfonia led by David Frost.

Subsequently and unbeknown to all involved, Truro restaurant owner David White nominated Ian Hughes and the ballet for the awards.

Ian said: “This has come as a wonderful surprise as I didn’t even know that the piece had been entered. It’s a huge honour to have reached this stage of the competition and to have been included with esteemed company as James Macmillan and Peter Maxwell Davis, both icons of contemporary British music.”

Ian also paid tribute to Kay Jones for her vision , courage and conviction in commissioning the work without any subsidies whatsoever.

The British composer awards will be presented at a ceremony at London’s Barbican Concert Hall on December18th with the winning pieces to be broadcast on Radio Three the following night.
David White, who owns Sevens and Café Citron, said: “The champagne will be on ice at Sevens on December 18th.”