Francois-Xavier Roth wins RPS Conductor Award

François-Xavier Roth has been given the Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor Award during a ceremony at the Royal Northern College of Music on Tuesday, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 yesterday.

The award is made ‘for the outstanding quality and scope of the performances to a live or digital audience and the work in any context of a conductor in the UK’, with previous winners including Colin Davis, Klaus Tennstedt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Bernard Haitink.

The jury’s citation read: ‘François-Xavier Roth is a modern-day musical Midas. With his touch, music leaps to life. In his adventures with the London Symphony Orchestra and his own brilliant ensemble Les Siècles, he stylishly unites modern and historical practice. He lights up the imagination of concertgoers and the many young performers and composers to whom he generously devotes his time.’

In his speech, Roth thanked Maestro Arts, and discussing London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Young Composer Scheme said, ‘New music is for sure our future, but not only our future – our belief in what is maybe one of the most important things with music: music is a mirror of our society and when we give the strength and power to new music it says a lot about our society. So tonight I will make a plea for this young generation. Let us trust this young generation and please be proud of what happens in this country and really shout how music should stand in our society.’

In other categories, Elena Urioste’s Kaleidoscope Chamber Music Collective was nominated for Ensemble and Aaron Azunda Akugbo as Young Artist.