For a concert series, festival or unique event which, through imaginative programming and presentation, drew fresh interest to a facet of classical music, wholly or mostly taking place between January 2018 and June 2019.

The Cumnock Tryst

Panel citation: composer Sir James MacMillan’s remarkable festival resounds throughout the public spaces and civic buildings of East Ayrshire, and values the local people participating as equals to its visiting artists. This is what music-making across Britain could look like: utterly inclusive and a brilliant model from which we can all learn. A powerful reminder that a composer’s – indeed any musician’s –place is in their community.

Also shortlisted:

• Freedom Season (Welsh National Opera)
  
• The Nature of Why (Paraorchestra)
  
• Stockhausen: Cosmic Prophet (Southbank Centre)

The 2019 Concert Series and Events Award was decided by an independent panel drawn from across the music profession comprising:

• Abigail Pogson, Managing Director, Sage Gateshead
• Jenny Jamison, Chief Executive, Scottish Ensemble
• Richard Morrison, Chief Music Critic, The Times
• Rosenna East, Chief Executive, Nevill Holt Opera
  
• Toks Dada, Classical Programme Manager, Town Hall Symphony Hall Birmingham