The Rosamond Prize

The Rosamond Prize is an annual collaborative project between Manchester Metropolitan University and the Royal Northern College of Music. It is a way of bringing together poets and composers to form collaborative partnerships; Manchester Met poets provide the words and RNCM composers set them to music. The pieces created through the process are performed at an annual concert with the one judged to be the best awarded The Rosamond Prize – named for Rosamond Street, which runs between Manchester Met and the RNCM. 

The Prize was devised by Michael Symmons Roberts, Professor of Poetry at Manchester Met, and Professor Adam Gorb, the RNCM’s Head of Composition. It was launched in 2008 and has resulted in ongoing collaborations and productions, as well as the pieces produced for the prize itself. 

Winners include Leo Geyer and Martin Kratz (2011), Grace Mason and Elisabeth Sennitt Clough (2016), Edgar Divver and Aaron Lembo (2017), Helen Kay and Robert Oswell (2018), Lauren Garland and Sammy Weaver (2019), Christopher Cook and Katherine Collins (2022), Devon Bonelli and Spencer Mason (2023).