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Colin’s Column

1 November 2021

Amateur groups scoop classical music’s

major awards alongside star musicians.

• Just announced, this year’s Royal Philharmonic Society Awards salute musical heroes
– both amateur and professional – who have inspired the nation through the
pandemic

• The new Inspiration Award, voted for by the public, was presented to the non-
professional Bristol Choral Society, while fellow amateurs in the Chorus of Royal

Northern Sinfonia outshone professional counterparts in the Series and Events
Award

• English National Opera received the Impact Award for its life-changing ‘ENO Breathe’
that has helped hundreds of long-Covid sufferers

• Star names including violinist Nicola Benedetti and Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, mother
of the musical Kanneh-Mason family, are also among the winners

Winners of the 2021 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards have been revealed this evening in
a star-studded event at London’s Wigmore Hall, celebrating the power and presence of
classical music throughout the pandemic, and the musicians – amateur and professional –
who have selflessly found ways against the odds to inspire others.