The medal was presented live onstage at the BBC Proms by RPS Chairman John Gilhooly at the end of Jurowski’s last official concert as Principal Conductor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

This is the 150th anniversary of the RPS Gold Medal, first awarded in 1871. It is awarded for the most outstanding musicianship to the finest musicians of any nationality. It bears the image of Beethoven, to celebrate the close relationship between the composer and the Society who commissioned his Ninth Symphony.

Recipients are chosen by the Board and Council of the RPS, their choice annually approved by RPS Members. Among prior recipients are Brahms, Elgar, Stravinsky, Bernstein, John Barbirolli, Kathleen Ferrier, and more recently Jessye Norman, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Dame Janet Baker and Dame Mitsuko Uchida. The most recent recipient was composer John Williams in November 2020.

Vladimir Jurowski receives the Gold Medal as he concludes a remarkable near-15-year tenure as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 2007, where he was previously Principal Guest Conductor from 2003. He remains Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and from 2001-13 was Music Director of Glyndebourne Opera. While he is set to return to the UK for future guest performances with the LPO, this Autumn he takes up the role of General Music Director of the Bayerische Staatsoper.

On presenting the medal to Vladimir Jurowski, John Gilhooly said:

‘You have brought revelatory energy to the UK stage through your acclaimed associations with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with Glyndebourne, and of course with your sterling companions of the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Principal Conductor. You have revolutionised what that term means, investing limitless invention in every step of the creative journey. As we are witnessing tonight, you are a world-class musical storyteller, conjuring drama and magic with your orchestral colleagues.'

Further details of the RPS Gold Medal and its prior recipients can be found here.

You can listen to the presentation, and indeed the whole concert in which it features, in the BBC Radio 3 broadcast for thirty days here. The presentation begins at 2:24:43.