SCOTS broadcaster and musician Mary Ann Kennedy is to team up with a Canadian composer to produce a new piece of work for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Ms Kennedy, who is a harpist, pianist and singer, will join forces with Scott Macmillan to produce the composition called Aiseag (The Ferryboat) as part of the first UK-wide new music biennial.

The work for classical and traditional musicians and electronica will also involve Nick Turner, Ms Kennedy's partner with whom she runs Watercolour Music, and lyrics from poet Aonghas MacNeacail.

The composition, which will celebrate the importance of ferry boats in two rural areas – the Highlands and Islands and Novia Scotia – was one of 20 projects chosen to be part of the PRS Foundation's New Music Biennial commissions for the Games.

Others include composer Matthew Herbert, who will use the sounds of 20 pianos from around the world, jazz musician Gwilym Simcock working with the City of London Sinfonia and young composer Samuel Bordoli bringing together opera and skateboarding in London and Scotland.

Dame Evelyn Glennie, who was on the judging panel, said the applications proved there was no shortage of talent, imagination and creativity in the UK. The winning 20 compositions will be performed next year in different locations across the country and will feature in two showcases in London and Glasgow.