Page 76 - RPS Awards 2024 Coverage Book

and the really fantastic production of Orpheus and Eurydice. He’s
now an associate artist at the Royal Northern and working not just

with young sitar players, but working with musicians across the
board. And I just love that between the three of them they represent

so much.”

James refers to the RPS event as an ‘awards locomotive’ and the
work to make Manchester’s moment special began last

summer. “We’ve had the awards for over 30 years now, but we’re

doing this now in the context of a struggle for the arts and so many
pronouncements over the last year of funding cuts or something

being either completely decimated or stripped back to its bare
essentials - and the whole sector is rocked and traumatised by that.

And so in those circumstances, this event has sort of taken on a

rather Important role in that for once.

“We’re not the subject of the story. We’re literally getting on the

front foot and saying ‘look how brilliant classical music is, look at all
the different things that classical music entails. Look at the

resonance’."

And the message we need to communicate loudly and clearly - not
just about the RPS Awards in Manchester, but also the work of the

Royal Philharmonic Society day in - day out?

“Well…we are a registered charity that supports, protects and

celebrates classical music and musicians in the UK through year-

round activity. We offer a range of grants for performance
commissions for composers and musicians at different stages in

their careers. For example, we have a fund that helps first-year

instrumentalist students who’ve got to their music college through
their talent, but they have very little financial means - and some of

them don’t even own an instrument of their own. We have a fund
they can apply for, that allows them to buy instruments - it’s a grant

- not a loan.