(Credits: Bayerische Staatsoper official website / Opera Online)

The Royal Philharmonic Society has announced the recipients of its awards for 2021.

Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston has been awarded in the Singer Category, while the English National Opera’s ENO Breathe received the Impact Award for the program to help Long Covid sufferers across the UK address their breathing and anxiety. The Inspiration Award went to the Bristol Choral Society and its conductor Hilary Campbell.

Newly-formed young opera company Vopera won the Opera and Music Theatre Award for its digital production of Ravel’s “L’enfant et les sortilèges.” Other awards went to the Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales Ryan Bancroft, composer Laura Bowler, composer Dani Howard, Dunedin Consort, Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Peckham multi-story car park Bold Tendencies, violinist Nicola Benedetti, Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, and chamber ensemble The Hermes Experiment.

“For so many of us, music has been a lifeline through the last eighteen months. It’s an honor 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 play an invaluable, central role in the nation’s recovery,” said the RPS Chairman John Gilhooly.

BBC Radio 3 will broadcast a special RPS Awards program at 7:30 pm on Nov. 8, 2021, featuring music of the winners. A film of the complete RPS Awards presentation will be freely available on the RPS website from Nov. 9, 2021.