Voting is open for RPS Inspiration Award
Florence Lockheart
Monday, January 13, 2025
The public is invited to decide the winner of the 2025 award which recognises achievements of the UK’s non-professional musical groups
Public voting is now open for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s (RPS) 2025 Inspiration Award. Four organisations are nominated for the award, which recognises the achievements of the UK’s non-professional musical groups and the individuals who work with these groups.
The Inspiration Award was introduced in 2020 and is this year sponsored by Presto Music. Previous recipients of the RPS Inspiration Award include Derwent Brass in 2024, Torbay Symphony Orchestra in 2023, and Hilary Campbell and Bristol Choral Society in 2021.
The 2025 shortlist has been assembled by a panel of experts working with non-professional groups, with help from leisure-time music-making charity Making Music. The public is now invited to choose this year’s winner. Nominees are detailed below:
Having recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra (WSO) is nominated for its performance work and its collaboration with Wolverhampton’s Music Education Hub to deliver free concerts for schools and offers free tickets for children to attend its annual concert.
Katrina Marzella-Wheeler is nominated for her work ‘breaking down barriers in her beloved brass band movement, creating opportunities for women, non-binary and underrepresented people to thrive in leadership and conducting roles’. Marzella-Wheeler conducts several community bands across the UK and advocates for new music by women and underrepresented composers.
Belfast-based Open Arts Community Choir is nominated for its work bringing together disabled and non-disabled people from different cultural backgrounds through song. The choir is directed by Beverley McGeown and performs across a wide range of genres and is part of Open Arts, an arts and disability organisation supporting the creativity and artistic development of disabled people.
The Pink Singers is Europe’s oldest LGBTQ+ community choir. The choir, led by music director Olivia Doust, is nominated for its work promoting ‘the love and appreciation of music among the LGBTQ+ community and to promote equality and raise awareness of LGBTQ+ issues in wider society’.
Votes can be cast using the Awards’ online voting form. The closing date for votes is 3 February. RPS Awards winners will be announced at an award ceremony on 6 March at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire presented in partnership with BBC Radio 3.
