Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia, Quay Voices and The World How Wide Community Choir win prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for The World How Wide
Film of the RPS Awards on www.royalpharmonicsociety.org.uk
Watch The World How Wide here – sagegateshead.com/read-watch-listen/the-world-how-wide/
The Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia is immensely proud to have won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Series & Event for its stunning choral film, The World How Wide, which also featured The Glasshouse International Centre for Music’s children’s choir, Quay Voices, plus The World How Wide Community Choir, made up of singers from more than 10 local Gateshead choirs.
Regarded by many as the BAFTAs for classical music, the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards celebrate the role of classical music in people’s lives.
This year’s awards recognised particularly the vital role of music through the period of the pandemic and the commitment of musicians to find ways to make music together.
The Award was presented to Timothy Burke, Director of the Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia and Helen Blythe, Senior Producer for The Glasshouse’s classical music programme at an event at Wigmore Hall on Monday 1 November.
The RPS’s Series and Events Award is presented to a festival, themed series of performances or truly unique performance event, presented digitally or for a live audience in the UK, that drew fresh interest to a facet of classical music.
Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia is based on the Tallis hymn Why fum’th in sight, Timothy Burke, Chorus Master of the Royal Northern Sinfonia Chorus, reintroduced the text in this choral arrangement created to engage singers across the North East during the pandemic.
135 singers from Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia, Quay Voices, and The World How Wide Community Choir drawn from across across the region, rehearsed and recorded their parts individually at home during lockdown, as well as meeting online to hone details of the performance.
Floating Earth edited together all 650 individual recordings, and the creative studio Novak created the accompanying film. The film pairs Vaughan Williams’ music with the majestic local landscape. Just as the musical history of the piece is layered – the 21st century arrangement, Vaughan Williams’ 1910 original, Tallis’ 16th century hymn based on an ancient psalm – so too is the history of this beloved landscape, with millennial architecture at The Glasshouse, Victorian sea defences, medieval castles, Hadrian’s wall, and the ancient landscape and sea itself.
Timothy Burke, Director of the Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia said “my faith in the power of music and creativity to give us a reason to keep on going has been strengthened so much by the dedication and determination of everyone who contributed to this project at such a difficult and uncertain time. It was exhilarating to work so closely with Novak and Floating Earth on this project, their technical wizardry and artistic vision were an inspiration. It has filled me with real joy that this creativity and effort has been recognised and celebrated with this award – congratulations to everyone who contributed to the project.”
Abigail Pogson, Managing Director of The Glasshouse International Centre for Music said, “The World How Wide captures The Glasshouse – it celebrates the power of classical music to move us, the beauty of our region and how important a sense of place is to people, and the fortitude of the human spirit when people come together. This project was an extraordinary logistical feat leading to hugely uplifting artistic creation, which reached so many people when released last year. I’m so thrilled that Tim’s leadership of RNS Chorus, Novak’s beautiful film and the artistry of every single chorus member involved has been recognised by this Royal Philharmonic Society Award. Thank you RPS for the recognition and PRS for Music for sponsoring the award. Above all bravo to everyone involved in The World How Wide’s creation.”
RPS Chairman John Gilhooly says, ‘For so many of us, music has been a lifeline through the last eighteen months. It’s an honour for the Royal Philharmonic Society to salute the brilliance and resilience of musicians nationally through the pandemic, giving the best of themselves for others, at times of immense personal challenge. This year’s RPS Awards winners are representative of countless music-makers across the UK whom we should all treasure: they have collectively kept our spirits high and will continue to be play an invaluable, central role in the nation’s recovery.’
Longstanding Awards partner BBC Radio 3 broadcast a special RPS Awards programme at tonight at 7.30pm featuring music of the winners. A film of the complete RPS Awards presentation will be freely available on the RPS website from 9 November. www.royalpharmonicsociety.org.uk
The Series and Events Award is support by PRS for Music
Full list of winners here – https://royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/rps_today/news/2021-rps-awards-winners-announced