Scottish Opera took home two prizes at the Sunday Herald Culture Awards 2017, held at SWG3 in Glasgow on July 13.
Lliam Paterson, the current Scottish Opera Emerging Artist Composer in Residence was named Best Musical Artist and Kelvin Guy, Scottish Opera’s Head Scenic Artist, was presented with the Technical Award.
One of the winners of Scottish Opera’s recent Opera Sparks 2018 competition, Matthew Whiteside, was also successful, taking home the One to Watch Award.
Lliam Paterson has been with Scottish Opera since 2014 and during this time he has created new music for various projects, including Opera Highlights. In March of this year, the Company premiered his new work, The 8th Door, a specially devised companion piece to Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Lliam also composed BambinO, the acclaimed new piece of music theatre for babies aged six to 18 months, which had its world premiere at Manchester International Festival earlier this month and opens at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.
Kelvin Guy, a graduate of Glasgow School of Art, has worked for Scottish Opera for over 30 years and is one of the Company’s longest serving members of staff. Primarily responsible for painting the large cloth backdrops used in Scottish Opera’s main stage shows, Kelvin works closely with the designers of each production to help them realise their vision. Kelvin’s work is renowned through the arts world, and during his long career he’s worked on countless Scottish Opera productions, often undertaking work for other companies including Scottish Ballet.
The Sunday Herald Culture Awards, now in its second year, is a major awards event celebrating the best of Scotland's world-class artistic scene. There were more than 140 entries received across fifteen categories. The judges included author and playwright Alan Bissett and writer and broadcaster Stuart Cosgrove, and was chaired by Sunday Herald editor and author Neil Mackay.