Page 29 - Final_RPS Awards 2020 Media Coverage Book

16 October 2020

THE WORD Moving Music

For more than 200 years the Royal Philharmonic Society has been creating opportunities
for musicians - notably Beethoven from whom the society commissioned his
9th Symphony - and the annual RPS Awards have been a gauge of the excellence of our
musicians. The shortlist for 2020 has been announced today, and here the RPS’s chief
executive James Murphy discusses why they are more important now than ever
In the avalanche of uncertainties that the pandemic cast upon us all in March, one thing seemed
clear: come what may, we had to find a way to present the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards.
There’s scarcely been a more important time to shout out loud why classical music matters, in
these months when so much music has been unable to speak for itself. It struck us that this is
precisely what the RPS Awards are for RPS website.

They’ve always shone a light on excellence and innovation in music, but now it seemed that light
could be a beacon, reminding the nation of the vital, invigorating, connective role that classical
music plays, enriching and empowering countless lives.
It’s easy to think of any awards as simply a chance to glam up and feel good about ourselves,
but – as one of our RPS Trustees, the baritone Roderick Williams, remarked to me – they’re the
chance for a profession to remind the public of all the good it has to give. So that’s what we hope
the 2020 RPS Awards can do when they’re announced on November 18.