RPS reveals 2023 award winners
Florence Lockheart
Thursday, March 2, 2023
The society's 13 prizes were given at a ceremony held last night at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
The 2023 Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) awards took place last night, with 13 prizes awarded to the members of the classical music industry who have excelled in various areas of the sector. The awards were presented by RPS chairman John Gilhooly at a ceremony at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenters Hannah French and Petroc Trelawny.
This year’s celebration attracted a live audience of over 800 people, with the awards ceremony scheduled to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 next Monday (6 March) and available to watch online via the RPS website from next Thursday (9 March). The evening was punctuated by performances by artists including cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, soprano Anna Dennis and the Manchester Collective.
Gilhooly opened the ceremony with an urgent and candid speech about the current state of the sector. He said: ‘Music's worth has never been clearer. We need open, honest dialogue now with government and funders. Let's together create strategies we all can believe in, drawing the best from our brilliant musicians to rebuild the nation's spirit, identity and pride’.
As well as the Gamechanger award, which this year went to organist, choral director and social media star Anna Lapwood, the prizes were awarded as follows:
- Chamber-scale composition - Ben Nobuto for his work SERENITY 2.0 for the Manchester Collective
- Conductor – English National Opera music director Martyn Brabbins
- Ensemble - Manchester Collective
- Impact - The Endz, a production by The Multi-Story Orchestra
- Inspiration (for which the RPS received over 4,000 public votes) - Torbay Symphony Orchestra
- Instrumentalist – cellist Abel Selaocoe
- Large-scale composition - Gavin Higgins for his Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Orchestra
- Opera and music theatre - Theatre of Sound and Opera Ventures for their reinvention of Bluebeard’s Castle at the West End’s Stone Nest theatre
- Series and events - Leeds Piano Trail organised by the Leeds International Piano Competition
- Singer – soprano Anna Dennis
- Storytelling - Manchester Camerata for its short film Untold - Keith
- Young artist – violist Timothy Ridout
Full feature coverage of this year’s awards will be available in the upcoming Spring Issue of Classical Music. Click here to subscribe to our quarterly print magazine.
