Paraorchestra win the Ensemble Award at the RPS Awards
News Story
We are delighted to share that Paraorchestra was awarded the Ensemble Award at the 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards.
The awards evening took place in Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Thursday 6 March 2025 and the Ensemble Award was the last award of the night. It was an eclectic celebration of classical music-making attended by Paraorchestra musicians, composers, trustees and staff, including our Chief Executive Jonathan Harper.
I am incredibly proud that Paraorchestra has won RPS Best Ensemble 2025, aligning us with many of the great national orchestras who have won previously. This award reflects the extraordinary and boundary-breaking artistic achievements of Paraorchestra over the last year and our continued drive to create space for disabled musicians to thrive in this industry. One that has, for so long, held them back. Winning is testament to our Artistic Director, Charles Hazlewood’s visionary artistic leadership. It’s with thanks to the exceptional array of creativity from our fabulous musicians, composers and artists, as well as the dedication and expertise of our team of hardworking staff and freelancers. It recognises the strength of the relationship we have with the wide range of audiences that experience our events, and the continued support and encouragement of all of our venue and funding partners.
Jonathan Harper, Chief Executive of Paraorchestra
Winning the Ensemble Award is a significant milestone for us as an organisation. Paraorchestra exists to push the boundaries of music-making and create art with passion and purpose, and so we’re honoured to receive this prestigious award and the affirmation it represents for our incredible ensemble of musicians, composers and creatives.
As we prepare for an exciting year of activity, both in our live work and our artist development programme Modulate, we are looking forward to continuing our work towards making the orchestral sector a more inclusive, accessible - and thus creatively rich sector for all.
We are very grateful to the RPS and the Ensemble Award judging panel for this award.
Thank you to our funders Arts Council of England, Esmée Fairbairn, The Linbury Trust, The Mark Leonard Trust, John Ellerman Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation and Bristol City Council for their steadfast commitment to our vision.
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