Page 53 - Final_RPS Awards 2020 Media Coverage Book

18 November 2020

Stephen Hough's Book 'Rough Ideas' Wins

2020 Royal Philharmonic Society Award

The awarding jury of the Royal Philharmonic Society praised Rough Ideas as “colourful and
compelling".

The Royal Philharmonic Society
(RPS) Awards, widely considered the
most prestigious music awards in the
UK, have named pianist Stephen
Hough's book Rough Ideas:
Reflections on Music and More as the
2020 award winner in the 'Storytelling'
category, which focuses on writings,
spoken word, radio, television, film,
and digital / online projects, among
other media, that further the understanding of classical music.

The awarding jury of the Royal Philharmonic Society, which was founded in 1813,
praised Rough Ideas as "a colourful and compelling document of a maverick musical
mind. It vividly charts vast terrain, illustrating how a virtuoso musician is not divorced
from the rest of the world."

Stephen Hough is regarded as a Renaissance man of his time. Over the course of
his career he has distinguished himself as a true polymath, not only securing a
reputation as a uniquely insightful concert pianist but also as a writer and composer.
On June 1, 2020, he re-opened London's Wigmore Hall, performing the UK's first live
classical music concert in a major venue since its nationwide lockdown in March.
Later that summer he made his 29th appearance at the BBC Proms.

As an international performer, Stephen Hough spends much of his life at airports, on
planes, and in hotel rooms-and the essay collection Rough Ideas expands notes he
has made, in his words, "during that dead time on the road." Published by Faber &
Faber in the UK and Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the US, this is the first time the
pianist's eclectic reflections on music and more are brought together in one place.