The RPS Awards have been awarded to the best and brightest in the world of classical music, with a range of winners across performance, production and musical storytelling.
The BBC Singers won the Ensemble Award following a dramatic year. In March last year, the BBC announced that it would be disbanding the ensemble, a decision that was met with significant backlash from the musical community. The BBC then suspended its decision and then reversed it this February.
A posthumous award was presented to composer Kaija Saariaho who died last year. She was remembered and recognised in two categories this year for her opera Innocence, which was nominated for Large-Scale Composition and also in the Opera and Music Theatre category for its UK premiere at The Royal Opera. It was beaten in the Opera and Music Theatre category by Chornobyldorf, a production from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, co-composed and directed by Ukraine’s Illia Razumeiko and Roman Grygoriv before the Russian invasion.
Jasdeep Singh Degun became the first sitar player to win an RPS Award, celebrated for his ‘glorious re-telling of Orpheus with Opera North.’
BBC Music Magazine critic and writer Leah Broad won the Storytelling Award for her book Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World.
The Gamechanger Award went to the Irene Taylor Trust for its work using music to help and empower people affected by the criminal justice system, while the Impact Award was presented to Clare Johnston and Drake Music Scotland. Together, they created Call of the Mountains, a collaboration with Kazakhstan’s Eegeru ensemble. ‘Drake Music Scotland are renowed for empowering disabled musicians. Their collaboraiton with Clare Johnston crosses new frontiers.’
The ceremony was held in Manchester for the first time, at the Royal Northern College of Music.
The full list of 2024 RPS Award winners:
- Chamber-Scale Composition: Laurence Osborne – TOMB!
- Conductor: François-Xavier Roth
- Ensemble: BBC Singers
- Gamechanger: Sara Lee and the Irene Taylor Trust
- Impact: Call of the Mountains (Clare Johnston and Drake Music Scotland)
- Inspiration: Derwent Brass
- Instrumentalist: Jasdeep Singh Degun (sitar)
- Large-Scale Composition: Kaija Saariaho – Innocence
- Opera and Music Theatre: Chornobyldorf (Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival)
- Series and Events: Manchester Classical
- Singer: Nicky Spence (tenor)
- Storytelling: Quartet – Leah Broad
- Young Artist: Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano)