MPG honours Sivert Hagtvet with 2016 LIPA Prize

Sivert Hagtvet has been chosen as the 2016 recipient of the Music Producers Guild Prize, which rewards the most promising student to graduate from The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) Sound Technology degree programme.

Launched in 2010, the MPG Prize delivers enormous career benefits to winning students by enabling them to work alongside some of the UK’s top recording professionals. This year, there is an added bonus for Hagtvet as he will also have the opportunity to spend time with A&R veteran Chris Briggs, winner of the 2016 MPG A&R of the Year Award.

Prominent MPG Awards winners continue to be very supportive of the initiative and there is also support from equipment manufacturers such as Avid and AMS Neve, which this year is adding to the prize by giving Hagtvet a 1073N Mic Preamp and EQ.

Jon Thornton, who heads LIPA’s BA (Hons) Sound Technology programme, said: “This year we chose Sivert to receive this prestigious award because of the continued commitment he has shown towards recording and producing music throughout his three years at LIPA. In particular, the range and quality of his final year work was outstanding – working with artists and in studios at LIPA, in Liverpool and in his home country of Norway. He also has masses of that entrepreneurial spirit that we value so highly in our graduates – and this, coupled with the range of opportunities afforded by the LIPA MPG Prize, should see him go from strength to strength in the professional world.”

Based in Norway, Sivert Hagtvet has a classical music background as a violinist. He began playing with local bands as a teenager and while doing so he developed an interest in sound recording, which led him to sign up for the LIPA degree course. He has now returned to Norway and is working with a composer to create music for commercials. He works from a recording studio complex in Oslo where he is setting up his own production room and enjoys fusing acoustic and virtual instruments to create a modern sound.

He said: “I’m really honoured to win the MPG Prize and I am looking forward to spending time with top recording professionals. I hope my experiences over the next year will enable me to learn more and enhance my production skills. I am also thrilled to win an AMS Neve preamp, which will certainly be useful in my new production room.”

The prize was presented to Hagtvet by producer Steve Levine and MPG representatives Tony Platt at LIPA’s annual graduation ceremony, which was also attended by LIPA Patron Sir Paul McCartney.

PPL has generously offered to contribute towards the cost of Hagtvet’s travel and accommodation expenses while he is taking up opportunities shadowing previous MPG Award winners, and throughout the year he will be mentored by various MPG members including Tony Platt, Mick Glossop, Gareth Jones, Bruno Ellingham and Cameron Craig.

(Pictured: Left to right – Jon Thornton, head of LIPA’s BA (Hons) Sound Technology programme; Sivert Hagtvet; producer Steve Levine; MPG Representative Tony Platt)

https://www.mpg.org.uk/