LS RPS Winners
London Sinfonietta has won the Royal Philharmonic Society Ensemble Award as a recognition of all its work throughout 2009, which included several landmark performances including giving the London premiere of George Benjamin's chamber opera Into the Little Hill with The Opera Group, a revival of Heiner Goebbels' Songs of Wars I have seen with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the ensemble's own Sonic Explorations festival at Kings Place.
The year also saw the first ever London Sinfonietta Academy, which gave training and performance experience to some of the most promising young contemporary musicians in the country, as well as the start of the KX Collective, a group of young people from the Kings Cross area who have been working with London Sinfonietta musicians throughout the year to create and perform their own new music.
When presenting the award, Rosemary Johnson of the Royal Philharmonic Society said: "The Ensemble Award goes to London Sinfonietta for the consistent excellence of its music-making, the diverse range and imaginative quality of its programming, the variety of its ground-breaking projects including the first London Sinfonietta Academy in 2009, and its encouragement of young creators of new music combined with its championing of established composers – all of which puts it in a class if its own."
The RPS awards celebrate creativity, excellence and understanding in classical music making and are among the most prestigious awards in the UK music scene.
The results were announced at a ceremony at the Dorchester in London on Tuesday 11 May. The award was collected by Andrew Burke, Chief Executive of London Sinfonietta and Clio Gould, Principal Violinist of the ensemble.
It was also a good night for London Sinfonietta's Conductor Laureate Oliver Knussen who won the RPS Conductor award.
The jury at the event commented that he was: 'A uniquely influential musician in the British music world for many years, he also happens to be a world class conductor, who appears regularly across the length and breadth of the UK. Blessed with one of the best pairs of ears in the business, his performances are illuminated with authority and interpretative insight, be it Schumann, Stravinsky or the latest work of a young composer. Open-minded, inspirational, with the ability to cast new light on all he touches'
Click here to read the full press release on the London Sinfonietta Ensemble Award.
