UK – The eighth Knight of Illumination Awards (KOI) ceremony was held on Sunday 4th October at London’s glamorous art deco Troxy to sparkling success. Once more it saw representatives from the professional entertainment lighting and video industry come together to celebrate the creative achievements of lighting and video professionals working on shows across the UK.
More details from KOL (www.knight-of-illumination.com):
The ever-popular awards, organized by The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD), The Society of Television & Lighting Design (STLD), The Fifth Estate Ltd and Clay Paky, was established to offer public recognition for outstanding achievements in touring, television and theatre lighting and video design.
The evening was hosted by prolific international lighting designer Mark Jonathan and the winners were announced as:
THEATRE
Dance: Lucy Carter for Woolf Works, Royal Ballet.
Musicals: Amy Mae Smith for Sweeney Todd, Harrington’s Pie Shop
Opera: Alessandro Carletti for Guillaume Tell, Royal Opera House
Plays: Tim Mitchell for Taken at Midnight, Minerva Studio, Chichester
Projection Design: Paul Barritt for Golem, Young Vic
TELEVISION
Small Studio: Andy Cottey for Election 2015 Wales
Light Entertainment: Gurdip Mahal for The Voice Final
Drama: John Daly for Up the Women
Events: Nigel Catmur for Young Dancer Competition
Video Graphic Display: David Newton, Alberta Torres and Jessy Wang for Strictly Come Dancing
CONCERT TOURING AND EVENTS
Concert Touring Arena: LeRoy Bennett for Lady Gaga
Concert Touring Stage: Will Potts for Sam Smith
Club: Tom Campbell for Anna Calvi
Live Events: Terry Cook for Secret Cinema – The Empire Strikes Back
Video Electronic Content: Nina Dunn for Alice’s Adventures Underground
LIFETIME RECOGNITION
The winner of the Lifetime Recognition award was Fred Foster, CEO of Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc. (ETC). The Award was introduced by Durham Marenghi who said: “The committee was unanimous in our decision to present this year’s Lifetime Recognition Award to Fred Foster for his astounding influence on performance lighting technology and to celebrate the innovations achieved with his colleagues at ETC. Also we wanted to recognize Fred’s support of theatre across the board from training and all the way through to manufacturing”.
Fred commented: “It’s a great honor to receive this award. I’ve always been proud to work with ETC and within this great industry. The most important people, however, are you, the lighting designers, who make the industry so good. Thank you to you all, and to the KOI Awards.”
Previous winners of this award include lighting designer Richard Pilbrow in 2011, Bryan Leitch in 2012, Ian Dow in 2013 and Brian Croft in 2014. The category is named in recognition of former Clay Paky commercial director Enrico Caironi (1947 – 2011), whose inspiration and enthusiasm created and subsequently shaped the Knight Of Illumination Awards.
David Benedict, Chair of the Theatre panel commented: “It has become obvious that ever more sophisticated video techniques and imagery are being used to increasingly imaginative and dramatic effect. It’s no exaggeration to say that the quality of lighting design in live theatre across the UK continues to rise. It’s not just about the quality of the work of the nominees, but the clear strength of dozens of productions from among the (literally) hundreds seen by the judges.”
Stuart Gain, Chair of the TV category, commented: “This year has given us a record number of entries, so the competition was keen. As with previous years, there was an incredibly high standard of entries, particularly in Drama and Small Studio sections. I would like to thank all those who put in entries this year.”
Sarah Rushton-Read, Chair of the Concert Touring and Events category, commented: “We saw a huge number of submissions for Concert Touring and Events this year and a stunning array of creative work. To be able to see many of the shows personally and meet the designers is always a pleasure and a privilege. As ever I was delighted to be reminded of the creative talent, innovation and often collaborative approach that characterizes our industry.”
Awards co-coordinator Jennie Marenghi, said: “It seems hard to believe that it was nearly a decade ago that Durham, Enrico Caironi and I sat down with Pasquale Quadri and presented the idea for an awards ceremony that not only recognized the mainstream lighting designers but those exponents of the art that remained out of the lime light. This year’s awards have reflected that aspiration perfectly and the committee would like to thank all those involved in making the Awards the success that we all enjoyed last Sunday.”
Clay Paky CEO Pio Nahum comments: “In a world where we are bombarded by an excessive and often unjustified triumphal communication, distinguishing what is truly special and beautiful has become difficult. An event like the Knight of Illumination Awards is essential to give due importance to the true excellence of lighting design. I am proud to see how this event has become important and the respect that the award has earned.”
The wider industry’s support for Knight Of Illumination continues to flourish. This year’s event was sponsored by Ambersphere Solutions, Ayrton, FIX8Group, Hawthorn, Light Initiative, MA Lighting, OSRAM, Robert Juliat and XL Video and supported by ABTT, ET Now, Lighting and Sound America, Lighting and Sound International, Mondo*dr, The Theatres Trust and Total Production International. Table sponsors include: AC Entertainment, Avolites, Chauvet Professional, Creative Technology, d3, ELP, ETC, GLP, GLS, Green Hippo, Howard Eaton Lighting, Martin Professional, Panalux, Philips Vari-Lite, PRG, Richard Martin Lighting, SGM, Stage Electrics, TMB, TSL and VER.
Behind the Scenes – the charity which supports entertainment technology professionals in times of need – received a £5,000 cheque at the Knights of Illumination Awards thanks to a donation from Clay Paky. The company’s Chief Executive Officer Pio Nahum presented a cheque to lighting designer Rick Fisher for Behind the Scenes UK.
Rick commented: “Once again Clay Paky is supporting Behind the Scenes UK at the annual Knights of Illumination Awards. Their generosity recognizes the collaboration required to create our work, and the fragile nature of those working in our industry. Behind the Scenes UK is now fully up and running and supporting people, coping with extreme hardships in all aspects of the entertainment world and the supply of the technology we all use. We welcome this generous support for Behind the Scenes UK and urge all to join Clay Paky by contributing and alerting us to those who may need assistance.”
