RPS Inspiration Award – shortlist announced
12 Dec 2024
We are pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2025 RPS Inspiration Award, presented for remarkable achievements of the UK’s non-professional musical groups and the dedicated individuals who work with them.
The public was invited to vote for their favourite, from 12 December 2024 to 3 February 2025, and voting is now closed.
For years, the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards have celebrated the finest classical music-making across the UK. We recently introduced the RPS Inspiration Award – kindly supported this year by our friends at Presto Music – for a non-professional self-run ensemble or individuals who work with such groups, in recognition of the remarkable constellation of such music-makers, often overlooked in awards such as these.
Unlike the other RPS Awards whose winners are chosen by expert independent panels, the winner of this RPS Award will fittingly be chosen by the public. A shortlist of four exceptional entities has been assembled by a panel who themselves work with non-professional groups and, from these, the public is annually invited to vote for whom they feel should receive this award.
The four shortlisted nominees are as follows. Click each for a flavour of what makes them particularly special and what they have achieved in the last year:
The closing date for votes was 11am on Monday 3 February 2025.
The winner will be announced at the RPS Awards at 7.15pm on Thursday 6 March 2025 at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. It promises to be a night to remember, featuring special guests and live music, giving you the chance to meet unsung heroes of classical music from across the UK and to rub shoulders with the stars. Top price tickets are £30, with a number of seats at only £10 for those who book early – and this year every guest will receive a complimentary interval drink. The foyer bar will stay open late and, as ever, guests are invited to dress ‘celebratory’. The RPS Awards are proudly presented in association with BBC Radio 3. For more information and to book, please click here.
The 2025 RPS Inspiration Award is generously supported by Presto Music.
The RPS is particularly thankful to Making Music – the UK’s principal organisation supporting leisure-time music-making – for their help and insights in planning this award.
Previous recipients of the RPS Inspiration Award include Derwent Brass in 2024, Torbay Symphony Orchestra in 2023, and Hilary Campbell and Bristol Choral Society in 2021.
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