The 2024 BBC Music Magazine Awards are writ large in this issue, in fact. We’ve got interviews with the winners across all nine categories, including violinist Bomsori Kim (for her part in an incredible album<\/a><\/strong> of concertos by Nielsen<\/a><\/strong>), guitarist Sean Shibe (whose album Profesi\u00f3n<\/a><\/strong><\/em> won our Instrumental Award), and countertenor Jakub J\u00f3zef Orli\u0144ski,<\/a><\/strong> winner of the Vocal Award for Beyond<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, his album of early Baroque Italian cantatas, songs and opera extracts.<\/p> We’ve also got a big interview with organist, conductor and social media sensation Anna Lapwood<\/a><\/strong>, whose energetic and effervescent championing of classical music (and of her instrument in particular) made her an easy choice for our Personality of the Year.<\/p> Elsewhere this issue, composer Anna Clyne tells Claire Jackson<\/a><\/strong> about the joys of bringing together the worlds of music and art, while for this month’s Building a Library Terry Blain<\/a><\/strong> enjoys the triptych of snapshots that is Charles Ives’s Three Places in New England<\/em>. <\/p> We’ve got a very entertaining article (with some great photos) from writer and Blue Badge Guide Rick Jones, who vividly follows the walk taken across Essex by composer Gustav Holst – a walk that provided the inspiration for the composer’s best loved work, The Planets<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. Meanwhile, Michael White heads back to 1920s London, where William Walton<\/a><\/strong> announced his arrival with the challenging, groundbreaking Fa\u00e7ade<\/em>; and the legendary Kronos Quartet celebrate their 50th birthday by sharing a few memories with Simon Broughton. <\/p> Our Composer of the Month is Isaac Alb\u00e9niz. Though famous for his depictions of Spain, Alb\u00e9niz was in fact a truly cosmopolitan composer, as Jessica Duchen<\/a><\/strong> reveals. And, talking of travels, this month’s Musical Destination is Verbier, Switzerland, where Michael Church finds breathtaking scenery and some of the world’s best musicians looking in for the annual music festival.<\/p>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/05\/JUNE24_CD.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>