Page 73 - RPS Awards 2024 Coverage Book

Last year’s awards took place at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, so
how did the decision to leave the capital - and where to go - come

about?

James: “There are lots of places I would love to go, but there is

something about Manchester that is such a stronghold for classical

music. To have two symphony orchestras, the music college, the
specialist music school. And also then these fantastic chamber

orchestras. Organisations like [Manchester] Camerata and more

recently Manchester Collective, are really asking big questions of
what society should look like and how music fits in that space. So it

just seems a sort of obvious place to go, and also last year
Manchester Collective won our Ensemble Award and Camerata

won our storytelling award for a beautiful film they made about their

work with dementia, so I think it was a real calling to come to the
city.

“The Northern [RNCM] is itself asking a lot of questions about
classical music in the future and for the young people at the college

to see this thing coming to them, which in a way is almost like an

advent calendar of all the different futures they could have as
musicians - it seems really great to do that in a space with young

musicians able to come to the show.”

James goes on to describe Manchester Collective as ‘Lighter on
their feet than some’ and able to inspire in a way many ensembles

don’t: “I think we have all been refreshed a bit by Manchester
Collective in some regards.”

We talk about Camerata’s Amina Hussain - and what music can

do in an informal setting.

“Amina and I were involved in a session at the Association of British

Orchestras Conference last week. She’s now Camerata’s principal
flautist and resident music therapist. That’s the first time that has

ever happened as far as I know in the UK, if not the world - it opens