Press Release:

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Honouring Daphne Oram's centenary, throughout late 2025 the Oram Awards, in partnership with Outlands Network, is embarking on a tour to uplift and inspire female and gender-expansive sound artists and musicians in communities and grassroots venues across the UK.  

The Oram Awards builds on Daphne Oram's pioneering legacy as a founding member of the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and her vital role establishing women at the forefront of electronic music innovation. Since 2017 the annual awards ceremony has celebrated an international array of artists bringing unique and inquisitive practices to electronic sound and music, all under the unified banner of "innovation in sound, music and technology." From live coding and expressive sound design to tape loop manipulation and electro-acoustic exploration, the artists recognised by the Orams embody the uncompromising, adventurous spirit of the awards' namesake. Alongside the ceremony itself, the Orams has expanded to encompass six-month mentorship programmes for award winners, sound workshops led by past recipients and partnerships with different venues around the UK. 

Anticipating the anniversary of what would have been Daphne Oram's 100th birthday (on December 31 2025, to be exact), the decision was made to pause the open call awards programme and take the Orams on the road with a regional tour and extensive programme of projects across the UK. Partnering with the experimental sound network Outlands and focusing on grassroots music scenes, throughout Autumn 2025 the oram/100 tour will travel to Sheffield, Bristol, Birmingham, Salford (Manchester), Newcastle, Edinburgh, Derby and Wirksworth, Derbyshire. The tour will take in music festivals, art galleries, universities and studios, partnering with local DIY collectives and artists to deliver a rich offering of workshops, talks, film screenings and performances. 

Among the planned performances are new commissions for past Oram Award winners,  based around a new digital sample pack drawn from Oram's archives. In Bristol, Kathy Hinde, Dali de Saint Paul and Lia Mazzari will perform a commission that draws on Oram’s writings as well as her wider musical and technological practices. In Salford, turntablist NikNak will deploy her signature experimental scratch techniques on Oram's sounds to create an improvised piece entitled 'Origin'. The Silver Field will use her instrument The Time Painter, created with an Oram Award bursary, to perform with Oram’s sounds at the Haarlem Gallery in Wirksworth. The sample pack will also be used by other artists connected to The Oram Awards and other high-profile acts to create new works for a compilation on nonclassical, culminating in a live event at the Barbican, London, on December 4 2025. 

"Daphne's work is arguably one of the most important and pivotal contributions to electronic music, especially by a woman," says NikNak. "Being a part of her legacy as an Oram Award winner, she and my comrades continually inspire me to make the musical worlds I want to create, unabashedly and as authentically as possible."

“After seven years of building the program with an annual awards program, live performances and workshops with leading festivals across the UK and our highly successful mentor program, we decided that it was time to press pause and evaluate the impact of the program. 

2025 felt like the natural time to do this, with the opportunity to do something new to celebrate Daphne Oram’s incredible contributions to the world of electronic sound and audio production as part of her centenary celebrations.

"We are aware that there are areas across the UK that we are still not reaching in terms of applicants for the awards. This tour offers a unique opportunity to collaborate with artists, venues and sound collectives at a grassroots level in those areas, helping us understand the barriers they face,how they are working to break them down, making the world of sound, music, and technology more accessible to everyone.”

Karen Sutton - Director / Oram Awards