Published: 10 May 2018
Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe won the coveted Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Young Artists and composer James Dillon took home the Chamber-Scale Composition prize last night at the prestigious Award ceremony in London.
The Awards, in association with BBC Radio 3, celebrated outstanding achievement in 2017 and were presented at The Brewery in London where Sean Shibe performed live. Highlights from the RPS Music Awards will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Monday 14 May.
Chosen by independent juries from across the music profession, the list of nominees for this year’s awards included Scottish representation across seven categories, demonstrating the extraordinary variety of outstanding music making in the Scotland.
The nominations make you quickly realise that the entire Scottish classical music sector, in all its diversity, is in great health and ready to take on the world.- Alan Morrison, Head of Music
Nominations from Scotland included: Scottish Ensemble in the Chamber Music and Song category; Dunedin Consort in the Ensemble category; Sean Shibe in the Instrumentalist category and winner of the Young Artist award; James Dillon winner of the composition prize; Scottish Opera’s BambinO; Memory Spinners in the Learning and Participation category; and Scottish Opera’s Pelléas et Mélisande in the Opera and Music Theatre category.
Alan Morrison, Head of Music at Creative Scotland, said: “Congratulations to our two worthy winners. James Dillon’s award is also a victory for Red Note Ensemble, who played the piece at its premiere, and sound festival, who co-commissioned it. Sean Shibe is a remarkable musician, a global star of the future, and his live performance on the night, minutes after receiving his award, had the whole room spellbound.
“When you consider that the Scottish nominees ranged from the contemporary power of Dillon’s work to the early music panache of Dunedin Consort, through the versatility of Scottish Ensemble, to the generational spread of a newcomer like Sean Shibe and a veteran organisation like Scottish Opera, you quickly realise that the entire Scottish classical music sector, in all its diversity, is in great health and ready to take on the world.”
26-year-old guitarist Sean Shibe, who studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, won the RPS Music Award for Young Artists, an award that has been a springboard for some of the most exciting talent of the past two decades. Shibe who will be attending Classical:NEXT in Rotterdam next week as part of a delegation of Scottish-based emerging composers and musicians, was selected for the 2017 Made in Scotland Showcase for his work SoftLOUD. The work is now being translated into an album due for release in September on Delphian Records and supported by Creative Scotland.
Shibe, the jury stated; “Exemplifies the criteria of the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in his approach to creativity, excellence and understanding by extending boundaries and challenging pre-conceptions of the guitar in solo and collaborative performance; his artistry and dedication are compelling”.
Composer James Dillon won the RPS Music Award for Chamber-Scale Composition, his fourth composition award (awarded twenty years after he won his first), making him one of the most decorated musicians in RPS Music Awards history. Dillon’s “ground-breaking” Tanz/haus Tryptich 2017, premiered by the Red Note Ensemble at the 2017 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival will receive its Scottish premier at sound festival in October.
Judges commented: “Once again this composer breaks new ground with a work which immerses its audience in a music theatre of the mind. It is compelling for the sureness of its unfolding in time and space; the striking soundworldsconjured from its nine-piece ensemble, and its rich underlying vein of melancholy.”
The awards were hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenters Georgia Mann and Petroc Trelawny, with the silver lyre trophies presented to winners by Judith Weir, Master of the Queen’s Music. Sir Nicholas Serota, Chairman of Arts Council England was the keynote speaker.
Find out more about the awards at www.rpsmusicawards.com.
Photos of Sean and James by Simon Jay Price.
