Mercury Music Prize 2002 – Beyond Categories…
Joanna MacGregor’s 2001 album Play has been nominated as a Mercury Music Prize Album of the Year.

The Mercury Prize is awarded for the most innovative, ground-breaking record of the year. The other nominees include the Streets, Roots Manuva, David Bowie and the soul singer Beverly Knight. In an industry swamped by manufactured, identikit teenage pop-stars and soulless classical compilation CDs by a few overpaid artists, the Mercury Prize aims to bring exciting and often unknown British artists to the ears of the masses.

" Simon Frith, chair of the judging panel, which includes musicians, writers and broadcasters, indicated a personal preference for Joanna MacGregor, the concert pianist, who would be the first classical artist to win the award.

On Play, her own vibrant musical personality shines through to give the record an appeal beyond the traditional classical realm."
The Times

"The eclectic list also includes surprises such as Joanna MacGregor, a classical pianist who formed her own label to release an album of music ranging from the conventionally classical to collaborations with artists including Talvin Singh and performers from South Africa & Japan.

MacGregor said she was thrilled. “The thing about the Mercury list is that it’s not about categories” she said. “The way music is going, you can’t operate in categories any more”."
The Independent

ABOUT PLAY
SC007 Play is a summing-up of Joanna MacGregor’s work in the last ten years It is a collection of pieces for the piano, ranging across all the concepts of this instrument that are available to us in the twenty-first century. It includes works for early keyboard instruments and the lute, for piano and electronics, for prepared piano, for piano-tabla fusion and for piano multitracking. Each piece on Play has a narrative involving the biography of the composer and the events in Joanna’s life that have made it so important to her. Play has been acclaimed as a ‘remarkable CD by a remarkable pianist’ (Sunday Express, January 2001). Critics and the listening public have expressed praise both for the intriguing selection of works and for the fearless, intensely personal playing.

Play is available to order online and by post – please go to the Orders and Mailing List page. For more information about Play email SoundCircus..