You can read all the news below, and here we are pleased to share the complete film of the event for you to watch freely.

The winners of the 2026 RPS Awards – billed by The Sunday Times as 'the biggest night in UK classical music' – were announced this evening, Thursday 12 March 2026, celebrating classical music’s power and resonance nationwide. Over 850 music-makers and music-lovers gathered at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall for the event, hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenters Georgia Mann and Petroc Trelawny, with trophies presented by RPS Chair Angela Dixon. A range of images from the event, by Mark Allan Photography, can be viewed on our highlights page. 

Singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Jacob Collier received the coveted RPS Gamechanger Award, for artists breaking new ground, and closed the show with a live performance, rousing the entire audience to sing. Presenting his award, Angela Dixon said ‘Jacob is a true 21st century gamechanger. In everything he does, he casts open the inner-workings of music, showing us how it’s made. He illuminates the musician in all of us.’

Star musicians received major awards: soprano Louise Alder received the RPS Singer Award after a stellar year including the BBC Last Night of the Proms; John Wilson took home the RPS Conductor Award, for the sell-out concerts and chart-topping albums he leads with his all-star orchestra, the Sinfonia of London; and new opera Festen – a box office smash at Covent Garden – won the RPS Large-Scale Composition Award. Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage collected the award on the night.

The brass world received a rare moment in the spotlight this year, with Peter Moore becoming the first ever trombonist to win the RPS Instrumentalist Award. Trumpeter Matilda Lloyd also took home the RPS Young Artist Award. Both artists were recognised in part for their respective collaborations with Wales’  Tredegar Town Band and Buckinghamshire’s Amersham Band. There was also a nomination for York’s Shepherd Brass Band and its Deaf Principal Cornet player Sean Chandler in the Inspiration category, celebrating non-professional ensembles. That award, singularly decided by public vote, went to the Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society. Celebrating its 150th anniversary, the Society – run by volunteers – is a treasured jewel for the people of Fife, with rousing concerts and extensive initiatives in the local community.

Further recognition came for Scotland’s orchestral forces as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra became the first professional symphony orchestra to win the RPS Ensemble Award since 2014, recognising the great array of music they make for – and with – a vast audience across Scotland.

The RPS Impact Award – for ventures that prove classical music's life-changing role in society – went to Orchestras for All, an extraordinary charity that empowers young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to take charge and have leadership roles in creative opportunities nationwide.

The RPS Series and Events Award went to the evening’s host venue, the Southbank Centre, for its first ever Multitudes Festival, which attracted 50% new audiences to classical music, boldly pairing its resident orchestras with artists from dance, theatre, art and film. The festival returns to the venue this April.

Other winners, chosen by expert panels, included BBC Radio 3 presenter Elizabeth Alker whose book Everything We Do Is Music, joining the dots between classical and pop music, won the RPS Storytelling Award; Glyndebourne’s community opera Uprising composed by Jonathan Dove, which wowed audiences in Sussex, Essex, Glasgow and Edinburgh, received the RPS Opera and Music Theatre Award; and composer Claudia Molitor whose powerful work Fever for eight trumpets, first performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, received the RPS Chamber-Scale Composition Award.

BBC Radio 3 will broadcast a special RPS Awards programme at 7.30pm on Friday 13 March, available for a further month on BBC Sounds, giving audiences the opportunity to hear highlights from the event and more music from this year’s winners. A film of the whole RPS Awards presentation will be freely available to watch on this page of the RPS website from Thursday 19 March.

The RPS Awards unite many partners from the UK’s classical music community. The RPS is especially grateful to this year’s Principal Supporters – BBC Radio 3, ABRSM, BBC Music Magazine, Decca Classics, Dorico from Steinberg, Presto Music, PRS for Music, Sir Simon and Victoria, Lady Robey CBE – and those who put their name to individual awards as detailed below, as well as RPS Members and all those who support the Royal Philharmonic Society’s charitable work year-round.

A complete list of this year’s RPS Awards follows. Click the title of each award to find out more.

Chamber-Scale Composition Claudia Molitor – Fever
supported by Boosey & Hawkes in memory of Tony Fell

Conductor John Wilson
supported by Chandos Records

Ensemble Royal Scottish National Orchestra
supported by Outhere Music Group

Gamechanger Jacob Collier
supported by I Can Compose

Impact Orchestras for All
supported by Oxford University Press Music

Inspiration Kirkcaldy Orchestral Society
supported by Stainer & Bell

Instrumentalist Peter Moore – trombone 
supported by The Early Music Shop

Large-Scale Composition Mark-Anthony Turnage – Festen 
supported by The Boltini Trust

Opera and Music Theatre Uprising – Glyndebourne
supported by Wise Music Group

Series and Events Multitudes – Southbank Centre
supported by Warner Classics

Singer Louise Alder – soprano 
supported by Jenny Hodgson

Storytelling Everything We Do Is Music – Elizabeth Alker    
supported by Martin Randall Festivals

Young Artist Matilda Lloyd – trumpet 
supported by Julian Lloyd Webber

For press enquiries about the RPS Awards, please contact Maddie Castell at RDMR.