VC Artist Timothy Ridout Wins Royal Philharmonic Society's Young Artist Award

Ridout joins 12 artists and ensembles who were honored at the annual awards in London

The 2023 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, which took place on March 1, was held in association with BBC Radio 3 in Queen Elizabeth Hall at London's Southbank Centre. The larger hall allowed for much-reduced ticket prices and drew its largest-ever live audience of over 800 people.

Cellist and 2020 RPS Young Artist Award winner Sheku Kanneh-Mason kickstarted the event and premiered Cello Sonata No.2 by Cuban composer Leo Brouwer. Hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenters Hannah French and Petroc Trelawny, it further featured performances by winners Manchester Collective and soprano Anna Dennis.

VC Artist violist Timothy Ridout was given the Young Artist Award — which honors those who have shown remarkable promise and made a strong impression in the UK.

The RPS writes, "Pure and simple, Timothy Ridout makes the viola sing. There is such luxury and humanity in his phenomenal playing. He compels audiences to think anew about the viola’s riches in his ingenious arrangements and commissions. He’s winning new recruits to the instrument through his dedicated educational endeavours."

A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music and the Kronberg Academy, where he studied with Martin Outram and Nobuko Imai, Timothy is a former first prize winner at the Lionel Tertis and Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competitions and was named as a 2019 BBC New Generation Artist and awarded the prestigious Thierry Scherz Prize at the Gstaad Festival Sommets Musicaux. in 2021, he joined the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

His solo engagements include performances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Baden-Baden Philharmonie, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, London Mozart Players, and Sinfonia Cymru, Zagreb Soloists, Rotterdam Philharmonic Strings, Young Musicians Symphony, and the Birmingham Conservatoire Orchestra.

The complete list of this year’s Awards is as follows:

Chamber-Scale Composition – Ben Nobuto – SERENITY 2.0

Conductor – Martyn Brabbins

Ensemble – Manchester Collective

Gamechanger – Anna Lapwood

Impact – The Endz – The Multi-Story Orchestra

Inspiration – Torbay Symphony Orchestra

Instrumentalist – Abel Selaocoe – cello

Large-Scale Composition – Gavin Higgins – Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Orchestra

Opera and Music Theatre – Bluebeard’s Castle – Theatre of Sound and Opera Ventures

Series and Events – Leeds Piano Trail

Singer – Anna Dennis – soprano

Storytelling – Untold - Keith – Manchester Camerata