Page 30 - Final_RPS Awards 2020 Media Coverage Book

Any fear that we might find ourselves short of contenders – given the abrupt end to much activity
in March – was put to rest as several hundred worthy nominations flooded our inbox at the start
of the summer. It also struck us from the outset that the awards somehow needed to honour the
extraordinary, generous surge of music-making that erupted online and on our doorsteps since
March. We duly decided to introduce a new category, especially for this year: the Inspiration
Award, for individuals or groups – instrumental or vocal, professional or amateur, established or
newly-formed – who found ways to inspire others musically in lockdown.
While we welcome nominations for most of our awards from RPS members as well as colleagues
across the music profession, with this new award it seemed only right that we ask the general
public to tell us their views. Within 24 hours of opening nominations for the Inspiration Award, we
had received over 200. By the end of the summer, we had been deluged with an extraordinary
2,761. This says so much about how people have really needed music at this time, and how it
has clearly helped keep the nation upbeat.
Rather than assemble an independent panel for the Inspiration Award, we’ve had a lot of fun with
the RPS board and council delving into and considering all the submissions. Every endeavour
deserves credit, but in November we’ll be announcing six winners that have particularly touched
the nation’s hearts.

Meanwhile, over the summer, we did assemble panels of colleagues from the classical music
profession for all our regular awards. When I came to the RPS a couple of years ago I vowed to
change panels annually, to ensure we’re hearing and representing the widest range of views.

Some folks said we couldn’t hope to improve on the remarkable range of winners last year when,
for the first time, all individual artist awards went to women, and there were trophies for
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s disabled ensemble BSO Resound, and the black, Asian
and ethnically diverse orchestra Chineke! But as this year’s panel conversations ensued on
Zoom, I was so humbled to witness such ardent, earnest conversation, from one category to the
next, in which panellists were keen to ensure the awards captured how classical music is making
connections with a wider society than it has in the past.
There are nominations for music-making across the UK, from Scottish Opera to the Manchester
Collective, from two Yorkshire festivals to the pride of Wales: Swansea-born soprano Natalya
Romaniw. It’s also heartening to see that, among the 18 individual performers and composers
shortlisted this year, 33% are people of colour. I particularly love the shortlist for large-scale
composition which, from 26-year-old disabled composer Oliver Vibrans to 77-year-old Frank
Denyer, to Errollyn Wallen and David Sawer, could scarcely comprise four more different voices,
all of whom have written fabulous pieces equally deserving recognition.
The Impact Award shortlist is just as striking, with powerful initiatives uniting communities, and
empowering stroke victims, teenagers with extreme mental health issues, and families needing
rehabilitation from experiences in the criminal justice system. The message is loud and clear:
look what classical music can do.

Indeed, across all categories, there’s absolutely no sense of classical music standing still: here
are musicians and ventures asking fresh questions, making new connections, and proving the
indispensable vitality of something I’m almost hesitant to call an ‘art form’ given the lofty
connotations that – in some eyes – can saddle such a term. It’s so much more than that.
Collectively, the RPS shortlisted (who in turn represent countless more brilliant artists and feats
nationwide we simply couldn’t fit on the shortlists) prove that classical music is an essential force
for good in our society. To a fair degree, the vitality of the nation’s soul relies on it, and is sure to
be diminished if we don’t sufficiently care for and support classical musicians through this testing
time.

The complete shortlists for the 2020 RPS Awards can be found
at www.royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk where you can also be first to find out the winners in a
special digital broadcast with celebrity guests at 7.00pm on Wednesday 18 November.