Judging panels made up of critics from a broad range of publications celebrated
Achievement in Opera with two awards: one to English National Opera’s staging of Jake
Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (best new production), and one to Mark-Anthony Turnage’s
Festen, named best new opera and staged by the Royal Opera. The awards were supported
by Peter and Leslie MacLeod-Miller – Leslie made the presentation.
Mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor and counter-tenor Hugh Cutting received their Rising Artist:
Vocal awards from guest presenters mezzo-soprano Patricia Bardon and composer Bob
Chilcott. Taylor was praised for her “fearless, magnetic presence to every role” and Cutting
for his keenness to welcome challenges plus his ever developing skills as a stage artist”.
Junyan Chen, with her “breadth of musical curiosity”. was named the rising star among
pianists, receiving her award from Critics’ Circle member and editor of The Pianist, Erica
Worth. The Instrumental award was presented by Emma Baker, editor of monthly strings
magazine The Strad, to French-born violinist Irène Duval. Judges admired “her musical
intelligence, finesse and fearlessness”.
Adam Hickox was named Rising Conductor of 2025, praised for his “chameleon quality,
and an ability to let the repertoire speak without ego”. He received his award from Critics’
Circle member and former editor-in-chief of Opera Now, Ash Khandekar.
For the first time, the award to Rising Composer was presented in memory of the critic
Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt, who died in 2025. His widow, Thérèse Cantine, presented the
award to Lucy Walker, whose choral work reached audiences worldwide in the 2025
Proms while also being sung by small choirs up and down the land.
In another first, the inaugural Early Music award, supported by Continuo Foundation, went
to The Telling, whose innovative performances marry music of historical importance with
present-day concerns. The foundation’s founder and CEO, Tina Vadaneaux, presented the
award for Into the Melting Pot, praised as “a living means of communication through
which audiences can reflect on exile, identity, resilience and belonging across the
centuries”.

Pianist and musical ambassador Mitsuko Uchida, receiving the Lifetime Achievement
award, while unable to attend the event in person sent a video message. IMG Artists’
Alexander Monsey accepted the award on her behalf from Music Chair Claudia Pritchard.
Judges concluded their admiration for her work with a heartfelt “how lucky we have been
that Uchida has made England her home for over half a century”.
Several artists performed to the invited audience during the presention ceremony. The
Telling, with soprano Heloïse Bernard and harpsichord player Aidan Phillips, performed
Purcell’s “She Loves and She Confesses Too”. Hugh Cutting, with pianist Murray Hipkin,
sang Vaughan Williams’s “Orpheus with his Lute”. With pianist Hamish Brown, Beth
Taylor sang Herbert Howells’s “King David”, and Irène Duval played JS Bach’s Gavotte en
Rondeau from Partita No 3.
The evening concluded with Beth Taylor, Hugh Cutting, Irène Duval and Junyan Chen
returning to the stage to give the first performance of an arrangement made especially for
them by Lucy Walker of her popular song, “Make Me An Island”.
After the presentations, the audience met and mingled over drinks and canapes – and
talked about music…

For more information, contact Claudia Pritchard (claudiapritchard@hotmail.com); 07989
864976