The full film of the event – featuring all the memorable speeches and performances, including a performance by star cellist and 2020 RPS Young Artist Award winner Sheku Kanneh-Mason – is now available, along with the films of previous RPS Awards and other RPS events, for RPS Members to watch in the exclusive Members area of our website, Backstage.

If you're not already an RPS Member yourself, we warmly invite you to consider joining. It's an opportunity to make a charitable gesture and show your support for the music and musicians you love - so precious to us all as Richard so poignantly expresses in his acceptance speech - and to be a valued part of a connected community of music-lovers and music-makers united by a cause. You can discover more about the rewards of RPS Membership on our website here or by browsing our new Membership brochure...

The 2023 RPS Awards were presented on 1 March at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. An urgent message about the reach and resonance of classical music – and everything that professional and amateur music-makers devote to society – was made at the event, which drew their largest-ever live audience of 800 people. Click here to read all about the occasion and the winners in our news story.

We hope you enjoy sharing in this winning moment and are inspired by Torbay Symphony Orchestra's Music Director, Richard Gonski's resonant acceptance speech. So much of what Richard said was echoed in sentiments throughout the presentation, including in a landmark speech by RPS Chairman John Gilhooly, which you can read in full here on the RPS website.