Page 133 - RPS Awards 2024 Coverage Book

The coveted Gamechanger Award went to the Irene Taylor Trust and its
inspirational Artistic Director Sara Lee for their life-changing work using music to
help and empower people affected by the criminal justice system and in marginalised

areas of society. Presenting the award, RPS Chairman John Gilhooly said ‘The Irene
Taylor Trust is a tiny organisation with very small resource but the biggest of hearts.

Politicians and policy-makers, pay heed: here is living proof of music helping society to
heal. Here we see music as a gamechanger in itself.’ You can read the full citation here
on the RPS website.

Born and based in Leeds, Jasdeep Singh Degun became the first sitar player to

win an RPS Award, in the Instrumentalist category. At the event, he performed his
own work Veer with tabla player Harkiret Bahra and student string players from the

Royal Northern College Music. Jasdeep was praised both for showing audiences the
boundless possibilities of the sitar and his boundary-breaking collaborations, including
the joyous Orpheus staged with Opera North.

The Impact Award was presented to disabled musician Clare

Johnston and Drake Music Scotland for Call of the Mountains, a

remarkable collaboration with Kazakhstan’s Eegeru ensemble, which culminated in a
collective performance in Edinburgh. The initiative was praised for crossing new
frontiers and showcasing ways for marginalised artists to take the reins and lead the

field.

Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, an icon of contemporary music who died in
2023, was celebrated with the Large-Scale Composition Award for her

acclaimed opera Innocence: a mesmerising portrait of lives forever changed by a
high school shooting, staged by The Royal Opera. Her son, and the opera’s co-librettist,
Aleksi Barrière collected the trophy in her name. You can read my review of the

Saariaho opera at Seen & Heard International here.

After a year in the headlines, the BBC Singers were recognised for the astonishing

quality, style and imagination they have brought to a range of endeavours and
collaborations, receiving the Ensemble Award. Star tenor Nicky

Spence received the Singer Award for a phenomenal year including

performances at the BBC Proms, Welsh National Opera, Classical Pride and Eurovision,
and huge dedication to nurturing young talent at Blackheath Halls and Scottish Opera.

Nicky and pianist Dylan Perez enchanted the audience at the event with a live