WIDE-RANGING SHORTLISTS CELEBRATE THE BEST IN UK LIVE CLASSICAL MUSIC IN 2017

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1 Press Release For release: Thursday 12 April at 5.05pm SHORTLISTS ANNOUNCED FOR ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY [RPS] MUSIC AWARDS Presented in association with BBC Radio 3 WIDE-RANGING SHORTLISTS CELEBRATE THE BEST IN UK LIVE CLASSICAL MUSIC IN 2017 Shortlists have been announced for the Royal Philharmonic Society [RPS] Music Awards (today 12 April 2018). The RPS MUSIC AWARDS, presented in association with BBC Radio 3, are the UK s most prestigious awards for live classical music, and this year s shortlists are particularly wide-ranging. Over 50 musicians, ensembles and organisations nationwide are in contention for this year s awards, which celebrate outstanding music making in The shortlists reveal a kaleidoscope of musical talent, invention and imagination, whether in the concert hall or on the opera stage, in the community or online, in written word, film or for the first time, via virtual reality. Glyndebourne Festival Opera s premiere of Brett Dean s acclaimed new opera Hamlet leads the shortlists, with nominations in four categories: Singer with nods for Allan Clayton, who premiered the title role, and David Butt Philip, who took the role of Hamlet on tour in the Autumn; Opera and Music Theatre; for composer Brett Dean in the Large Scale Composition category and for its conductor Vladimir Jurowski. Jurowski is one of a number of internationally acclaimed artists to make the cut; he is shortlisted alongside Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and Sir Antonio Pappano for the RPS Music Award for Conductor. Other shortlisted musicians include instrumentalists, violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Igor Levit and young artists, soprano Louise Alder and conductor Elim Chan. Cited composers are: Brett Dean, James Dillon, Oliver Knussen, Silvina Milstein, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Raymond Yiu. Those receiving double shortlisted nominations include: 26-year-old Scottish guitarist, Sean Shibe, who has been shortlisted for both the RPS Music Award for Instrumentalist and the RPS Music Award for Young Artists; Scottish Opera for Pelléas and Mélisande, and for two projects engaging the youngest and oldest: the groundbreaking BambinO, a new opera for 6-18 month old babies, and Memory Spinners, a weekly project for people living with dementia. It s also a good year for BBC Music, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts, BBC Proms Relaxed Prom for children and adults with autism, sensory and communication impairments and learning disabilities, and BBC Studios for BBC Four programme, Becoming A Lied Singer: Thomas Quasthoff and the Art of

2 German Song, all in the running for awards. There are strong showings for organisations in Scotland with the Dunedin Consort which recently faced closure after a threatened funding cut - and Scottish Ensemble joining Sean Shibe and Scottish Opera on the shortlists, and for Yorkshire, with community opera in the Calder Valley, special concerts in East Riding and new music in Hull, City of Culture all featuring. London Symphony Orchestra, The Sixteen, Spitalfields Music, Sir John Eliot Gardiner/the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras, Southbank Sinfonia, PRS Foundation, Orchestras Live, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Operasonic, Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Opera House are amongst shortlisted ensembles and organisations. Inclusive music making is celebrated with recognition for two ambitious community operas, featuring hundreds of participants, rooted in Yorkshire and in Wales, the BBC Relaxed Prom and Scottish Opera s BambinO and Memory Spinners. Virtual reality features on RPS Music Awards shortlists for the first time, in the shape of Welsh National Opera s Magic Butterfly, a reinterpretation of Madam Butterfly and The Magic Flute. Baritone Thomas Quasthoff, and violinist Min Kym (who hit the headlines in 2010 following the theft of her Stradivarius violin at Euston Station) are amongst musicians shortlisted for their work in creatively communicating the joys, and the challenges of a life in music - on film and in print respectively. John Gilhooly, Chairman of the Royal Philharmonic Society comments: The musical ambition and talent on display in these shortlists is extraordinary. Professional musicians are exploring music new and old, often side-by-side with a fierce dynamism and breathless virtuosity, and amateur music-makers are creating works that draw on the landscape and legends of their own communities to create original, high-quality music. And it s very noticeable that this is not happening in isolation there s exciting collaboration across art forms, and a dialogue between young musicians and their distinguished counterparts that is good for music today, and bodes very well for the future. Several of the shortlisted events have been created to engage audiences who can feel culturally disenfranchised, whether through disability, age or geography. For those who are yet to discover the joys of live music making, whether as an audience member or as a participant, I hope that these shortlists highlight the variety and excellence of live classical music in the UK. And I hope that they act as a clarion call to funders and supporters to continue to back the musicians and organisations that make the UK music scene the envy of the world. The annual RPS Music Awards are the highest recognition for live classical music in the UK. Awards, in thirteen categories, are decided by independent panels consisting of some of the music industry s most distinguished practitioners. The awards honour

3 musicians, composers, writers, broadcasters and inspirational arts organisations. The list of previous winners reads like a Who s Who of classical music. Winners will be announced at the RPS Music Awards dinner on Wednesday 9 May in London, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Monday 14 May at 7.30pm RPS Music Awards Sponsors The RPS Music Awards are presented in association with BBC Radio 3, with individual category sponsors: BBC Music Magazine; The Boltini Trust; Boosey and Hawkes, in memory of Tony Fell; Lalita Carlton Jones; Sir Simon and Victoria, Lady Robey OBE and Schott Music FURTHER PRESS INFORMATION FROM: SOPHIE COHEN sophie@sophiecohenartspr.com RPS MUSIC AWARDS 2018 shortlist in association with BBC Radio 3 Award Shortlist Audiences and Engagement Chamber Music and Song Relaxed Prom (BBC Proms) Classically Yours (Orchestras Live in partnership with East Riding of Yorkshire Council) New Music Biennial 2017 (PRS Foundation) Magic Butterfly (Welsh National Opera) BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts Schumann Street (Spitalfields Music) Scottish Ensemble Chamber-Scale Composition sponsored by Boosey and Hawkes in memory of Tony Fell Concert Series and Festivals sponsored by Schott Music James Dillon: Tanz/haus Oliver Knussen: O Hototogisu! fragment of a japonisme Silvina Milstein: Shan Shui This is Rattle (LSO) R17 - Russia! Culture! Revolution! Centenary Season in Wales (RWCMD) #ConcertLab (Southbank Sinfonia) Conductor sponsored by BBC Music Magazine Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla Vladimir Jurowski Antonio Pappano Creative Communication Ensemble Becoming a Lied Singer: Thomas Quasthoff and the Art of German Song (BBC Studios for BBC 4) Min Kym: Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung (Penguin Viking) Opera: Power, Passion and Politics (V&A and the Royal Opera House) BBC Symphony Orchestra Dunedin Consort The Sixteen

4 Instrumentalist Isabelle Faust Igor Levit Sean Shibe Large-Scale Composition donated by the Boltini Trust Learning and Participation Opera and Music Theatre donated by Sir Simon and Victoria, Lady Robey OBE Singer donated by Lalita Carlton-Jones Young Artists Brett Dean: Hamlet Mark-Anthony Turnage: Hibiki Raymond Yiu: The World Was Once All Miracle Calderland - A People's Opera (509 Arts) Newport Legends (Operasonic) BambinO; Memory Spinners (Scottish Opera) Brett Dean s Hamlet (Glyndebourne Opera and Tour) Monteverdi 450 Trilogy (Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras) Pelléas et Mélisande (Scottish Opera) Allan Clayton David Butt Philip Brindley Sherratt Louise Alder Elim Chan Sean Shibe

5 THE SHORTLISTS in more detail CONDUCTOR, INSTRUMENTALIST AND YOUNG ARTIST Those riding high in the shortlists include three leaders of major UK music organisations - Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano, Music Director of the Royal Opera House and Vladimir Jurowski, Music Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and instrumentalists, violinist Isabelle Faust, pianist Igor Levit (winner of the RPS Music Award for Young Artists in 2013) and 26-year-old Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe. Shibe has been shortlisted in two categories (RPS Music Award for Instrumentalist, and the RPS Music Award for Young Artist, alongside soprano Louise Alder, winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the 2017 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, and Hong Kong born conductor Elim Chan, recently appointed Principal Guest conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. SINGER AND OPERA & MUSIC THEATRE The shortlist for the Singer award is an all-english affair: tenor Allan Clayton, who premiered the role of Hamlet in Brett Dean s critically acclaimed new opera at Glyndebourne Festival 2017; tenor David Butt Philip, who took Hamlet on the road for Glyndebourne Touring Opera in the Autumn and scored a critical success in the Hallé s performance of Elgar s Dream of Gerontius conducted by Sir Mark Elder; bass Brindley Sherratt for a year that included outstanding performances as Baron Ochs in Welsh National Opera s Der Rosenkavalier and John Claggart in Billy Budd at Aldeburgh Festival. Hamlet is one of three productions shortlisted in the Opera and Music Theatre category, alongside Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras Monteverdi 450 Trilogy, a landmark semi-staged presentation of Monteverdi s three surviving operas - Il ritorno d Ulisse in patria, L Incoronazione di Poppea and L Orfeo - and Scottish Opera s production of Debussy s Pelléas and Mélisande. COMPOSERS The RPS has supported composers and new music for over 200 years, and the RPS Music Awards includes two composition prizes. The distinguished shortlist for this year s Chamber-Scale Composition category includes two previous RPS Music Award winners, James Dillon (the recipient of four previous RPS composition awards), Oliver Knussen (who won an RPS Music Award in 1992) and Silvina Milstein. Dillon has been shortlisted for Tanz/Haus: Triptych 2017, premiered by the Red Note Ensemble at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Knussen for O Hototogisu fragment of a japonisme, premiered by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at Aldeburgh Festival, and Milstein for Shan Shui, premiered by Lontano at Kings College London. Brett Dean s opera Hamlet, is joined on the shortlist for the RPS Music Award for Large-Scale Composition by Mark-Anthony

6 Turnage for Hibiki, for soloists, children s choir and orchestra, commissioned by Suntory Hall in Japan and which received its first European performance at the BBC Proms, and by Raymond Yiu s song cycle, The World Was Once All Miracle, a setting of words by Anthony Burgess, which premiered at Manchester International Festival. ENSEMBLE, CHAMBER MUSIC & SONG, CONCERT SERIES AND FESTIVALS The RPS Music Award for Ensemble features the BBC Symphony Orchestra, vocal ensemble The Sixteen and Edinburgh s baroque Dunedin Consort, which earlier this year was removed from Creative Scotland s Regular Funding programme (a decision that was recently overturned following widespread support for the ensemble). Scotland is also represented in the Chamber Music and Song category. The Scottish Ensemble, with a 2017 programme that encompassed candlelight concerts, four day residencies in Scottish towns and cross arts collaborations, takes its place alongside BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts, and Spitalfields Music s Schumann Street, an ambitious staging and (re)interpretation of Schumann s iconic song cycle Dichterliebe, performed in historic Huguenot houses in East London. This is Rattle, the London Symphony Orchestra s expansive ten-day festival to mark the arrival of Sir Simon Rattle as its new Music Director is recognised in the Concerts Series and Festivals category, alongside the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama s Russia! Culture! Revolution!, which brought together 15 Welsh arts organisations to mark the centenary of the Russian revolution. The shortlist is completed by Southbank Sinfonia s #Concertlab, which used concerts as a laboratory to explore new approaches to classical music, combining the ideas of young orchestral musicians with contemporary technologies and philosophy. LEARNING & PARTCIPATION, AUDIENCE & ENGAGEMENT, CREATIVE COMMUNICATION The shortlist for the RPS Music Award for Learning and Participation straddles the country and shows that you are never too old (or young) to participate in quality music making: Calderland A People s Opera, a 75-minute community folk opera developed by 509 Arts, took over 3,000 people in Yorkshire on a journey through the Calder Valley s watery past, present and future - A love song to the Calder Valley and the people who live in it. Operasonic s Newport Legends delved into the local community over a period of nine months to unearth and transform local legends and community history in a performance that brought together music, storytelling, design and drama. Over 250 participants and 17 artists were involved, with the stories linked by mini-opera settings by Errollyn Wallen. Scottish Opera has been shortlisted for two projects at either end of the age spectrum: BambinO presented groundbreaking opera for babies, a celebration of the possibilities of music and the power of the infant imagination with music by composer Lliam Paterson and directed by Phelim McDermott. Scottish Opera s weekly Memory Spinners in Glasgow and Edinburgh uses music, storytelling and the visual arts to help people with dementia and their carers relax, get creative and form new support networks.

7 The shortlist for the Audiences and Engagement category is equally ambitious: Magic Butterfly, Welsh National Opera s pioneering Virtual Reality reimagining of scenes from Madam Butterfly and The Magic Flute; The BBC s first ever Relaxed Prom (presented by BBC Proms, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Royal Albert Hall) for children and adults with autism, sensory and communication impairments and learning disabilities as well as individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind and partially sighted; PRS Foundation s New Music Biennial 2017, which presented two free festival weekends in partnership with BBC Radio 3, Southbank Centre and Hull UK City of Culture which also featured a major series of composer residencies; Orchestras Live in partnership with East Riding of Yorkshire Council created Classically Yours, which brought top orchestras and special concerts to children and older people generally under served by music provision. The RPS Music Award for Creative Communication shortlist features: Violinist Min Kym s remarkable autobiography Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung (Penguin/ Viking). Kym hit the headlines when her 1.2 million Stradivarius violin was stolen from London s Euston Station in 2010 (it was three years before it was found); the book probes the pressures of growing up as a child prodigy, the nature of the connection between a musician and their instrument and the traumatic effect of the loss of that instrument. The Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal Opera House s Opera: Passion, Power and Politics was a landmark exhibition which explored the vivid story of opera from its beginning in late-renaissance Italy to the present day. The immersive exhibition took visitors on a journey through nearly 400 years, through the lens of seven premieres in seven European cities. RPS Gold Medallist, Thomas Quasthoff, one of the premier baritones of his generation, presented his personal guide to the love of his life, the German lied song, in the BBC Four programme, Becoming a Lied Singer: Thomas Quasthoff and the Art of German Song. The programme, which features a wide range of contributors, offered an incisive, unparalleled insight into this two-century-old musical tradition. NOTES: About the Royal Philharmonic Society: The Royal Philharmonic Society unites the music profession and its audiences to create a vibrant future for music: supporting and working creatively with talented young performers and composers, championing excellence, and encouraging audiences to listen to, and talk about, great music. The Society has been at the heart of music for over 200 years, with direct links to Beethoven (it commissioned the composer s Ninth Symphony), Mendelssohn, Wagner and many of the iconic figures of classical music. Champions of Excellence: The Society sets the standard and lets the world know about the finest classical music making. From its historic Gold Medal to the annual RPS Music Awards for live music, recognition by the RPS is a guarantee of outstanding musical achievement.

8 Young Musicians: The RPS invests in talented young performers, offering much needed funding to buy instruments, teaching tailored to their individual needs, or the chance to be mentored by an experienced, established performer. Composers: The Society supports new music through commissioning new work, repeat performances, workshops, residency schemes and encouraging interaction between composers and audiences. Audiences: The RPS is a voice for music, putting music at the centre of cultural life. Whether a regular listener or just beginning to explore classical music, the RPS actively promotes greater engagement with live music performance and encourages people to listen and talk about music through events and debate. About BBC Radio 3 Since it launched in 1946, the Third Programme/ BBC Radio 3 has been a bold pioneer in the cultural world. It is one of the world s foremost presenters, creators, commissioners and curators across classical, folk, world, jazz and contemporary music as well as drama, philosophy and ideas. The station has always nurtured extraordinary artistic talents, provided a platform for important scientific and political debates/announcements, and broadcast ground-breaking experimental drama always while delivering its core aim of connecting audiences with pioneering music and culture. The station is also the most significant commissioner of new and contemporary music in the UK, with 35 new works commissioned annually and broadcasts over 600 concerts a year, including live broadcasts from the greatest classical music festival in the world (BBC Proms). Radio 3 s In Concert programme alone reaches the equivalent of 250 packed concert halls a week, and the BBC Orchestras and Choirs give around 400 concerts a year in over 60 UK locations.