Sakari Oramo receives RPS Conductor Award

11/5/2016

Sakari Oramo

The Royal Philharmonic Society presented Sakari Oramo with its prestigious Conductor of the Year Award at its annual ceremony in London on 10 May. Awarded for performances in the UK during 2015, the RPS recognised Oramo’s work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra as its Chief Conductor. 

This award follows Oramo’s recent win at the BBC Music Magazine awards when he won the Orchestral award for his recordings of Nielsen’s Symphonies Nos.1 and 3 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded for BIS. Later this summer he will return to the BBC Proms to conduct both the First and the Last Night of the Proms, as well as two other Proms on 10 and 14 August.

The RPS Music Awards, presented in association with BBC Radio 3, are the highest recognition for live classical music and musical excellence in the UK. Oramo’s fellow nominees for the Conductor Award were Mark Wigglesworth and Vasily Petrenko. Previous recipients include Andris Nelsons, Daniel Barenboim, Claudio Abbado and Oliver Knussen.

“Sakari Oramo impressed the panel with the combination of passion and searching intelligence he brought to a vast range of music across the year, from a thrilling Belshazzar’s Feast at the Proms to his peerless Nielsen symphony cycle and shattering Elgar 2nd symphony with the BBC SO at the Barbican, where he also acted as midwife to numerous BBC commissions. This is a conductor who continues to grow and grow.”