Big Heavy World Named Best Global Music Office in Music Cities Awards 2020

Image from Music Cities Events featuring Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes and James Lockridge of Big Heavy World.

We are very excited to share that on September 23, Vermont’s very own Big Heavy World was named Best Global Music Office at the first-ever annual Music Cities Awards. This celebration, hosted virtually by Music Cities Events, was designed to acknowledge and reward some of the most outstanding applications of music for community development around the world. It was attended by 250 global industry professionals, and Big Heavy World took home one of nine awards from a pool of candidates from four continents. 

Big Heavy World was nominated for Best Global Music Office amongst Memphis Tourism (USA) and Music Victoria (Australia). This award was to be given to the music office that can “showcase unrivaled support for music, musicians and music businesses in their city as well as globally.” The awards also aimed to acknowledge best practices and showcase an organization that demonstrates “the value of music” to the world through their actions.

Because of the virtual nature of this event, the award was able to be given by a jury from all around the world which boasted professionals from musicians to urban studies theorists and everything in between. This jury included Al Bell, former chairman and owner of Stax Records, Brian Ritchie, bassist for the Violent Femmes, and María Claudia López Sorzano, former Secretary of Culture, Leisure and Sport for the city of Bogotá, Colombia, to name a few. 

The Music Cities Awards was a full-day virtual event consisting of nine webinars with one for each award category. Each discussion included the three organizations nominated for the award as well as industry professionals and a jury panel. This event was also open to the public. Each webinar celebrated the three groups nominated for the award and announced the winner at the end. By the end of the day, winners had been announced from three continents, five countries, and nine cities. The event concluded with a panel called “Why should every state have a music office?” moderated by Brian Ritchie.

Luke Jones, CEO of Music Cities Events, states, “We’re delighted with the success of the first-ever Music Cities Awards...We had applications from six continents and fifteen countries, and we hope the momentum from this year will lead to applications from even more countries and cities in 2021.” Information for the Music Cities Awards 2021 will be published in December of 2020 along with a list of awards, application process instructions, and a new jury list. You can find this along with the complete list of winners on the Music Cities Awards website.

Text by Kaitlyn Paszkiewicz