Page 53 - RPS Awards 2023 Coverage Book

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

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