Trumpet player Alison Balsom has been named as Artist of the Year at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards.
The musician is the first female to win the prize, which is voted for by classical music fans from across the world.
Her win follows a busy year for the trumpeter, having performed at the Latitude Festival and made her debut at Shakespeare’s the Globe. Alison also received the PPL Classical Award at this year’s Nordoff Robbins O2 Silver Clef Awards.
Alison said: ‘I'm so thrilled. I could not think of a better way to end the best summer of my life than to receive this hugely prestigious honour.
‘I am enjoying making music more than ever at the moment and to be praised for it by the Gramophone Classical Music Awards and by everyone who kindly voted for me is simply more than I could ask for.’
Other winners included Decca, which was named as label of the year while recording of the year went to Moldovan violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. His recording was an album remembering the astronauts of the Columbia space shuttle disaster.
The full list of winners is below:
Recording of the Year
Bartók, Eötvös, Ligeti Violin Concertos.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja HR-SO & Ensemble Modern / Peter Eötvös
Artist of the Year
Alison Balsom
Label of the Year
Decca
Young Artist of the Year
Jan Lisiecki
Lifetime Achievement
Julian Bream
Special Achievement
Alain Lanceron
Baroque Instrumental
...pour passer la mélancolie
Froberger, D'Anglebert, Fischer, Couperin, Clérambault, Muffat Keyboard Works. Andreas Staier
Baroque Vocal
Bach Motets.
Monteverdi Choir / Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Chamber
Bartók Sonatas for Violin and Piano, 1 & 2; Sonata for Solo Violin.
Barnabás Kelemen, Zoltán Kocsis
Choral
Elgar The Apostles.
Soloists; Hallé Choir, Youth Choir and Orchestra / Sir Mark Elder
Concerto
Bartók, Eötvös, Ligeti Violin Concertos.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, HR-SO & Ensemble Modern / Peter Eötvös
Contemporary
Dutilleux Correspondances; Tout un Monde Lointain; The Shadows of Time.
Barbara Hannigan, Anssi Karttunen, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France / Esa-Pekka Salonen
Early
A New Venetian Coronation
Gabrieli Consort & Players / Paul McCreesh
Instrumental
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition Prokofiev Visions fugitives, Five Sarcasms. Steven Osborne
Opera
Puccini Il Trittico. Soloists; Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Antonio Pappano (dir. Richard Jones)
Orchestral
Suk Prague; A Summer's Tale. BBC Symphony Orchestra / Ji?í B?lohlávek
Vocal
Wagner Arias.
Jonas Kaufmann, Orch of the Deutsche Oper / Donald Runnicles
The musician is the first female to win the prize, which is voted for by classical music fans from across the world.
Her win follows a busy year for the trumpeter, having performed at the Latitude Festival and made her debut at Shakespeare’s the Globe. Alison also received the PPL Classical Award at this year’s Nordoff Robbins O2 Silver Clef Awards.
Alison said: ‘I'm so thrilled. I could not think of a better way to end the best summer of my life than to receive this hugely prestigious honour.
‘I am enjoying making music more than ever at the moment and to be praised for it by the Gramophone Classical Music Awards and by everyone who kindly voted for me is simply more than I could ask for.’
Other winners included Decca, which was named as label of the year while recording of the year went to Moldovan violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. His recording was an album remembering the astronauts of the Columbia space shuttle disaster.
The full list of winners is below:
Recording of the Year
Bartók, Eötvös, Ligeti Violin Concertos.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja HR-SO & Ensemble Modern / Peter Eötvös
Artist of the Year
Alison Balsom
Label of the Year
Decca
Young Artist of the Year
Jan Lisiecki
Lifetime Achievement
Julian Bream
Special Achievement
Alain Lanceron
Baroque Instrumental
...pour passer la mélancolie
Froberger, D'Anglebert, Fischer, Couperin, Clérambault, Muffat Keyboard Works. Andreas Staier
Baroque Vocal
Bach Motets.
Monteverdi Choir / Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Chamber
Bartók Sonatas for Violin and Piano, 1 & 2; Sonata for Solo Violin.
Barnabás Kelemen, Zoltán Kocsis
Choral
Elgar The Apostles.
Soloists; Hallé Choir, Youth Choir and Orchestra / Sir Mark Elder
Concerto
Bartók, Eötvös, Ligeti Violin Concertos.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, HR-SO & Ensemble Modern / Peter Eötvös
Contemporary
Dutilleux Correspondances; Tout un Monde Lointain; The Shadows of Time.
Barbara Hannigan, Anssi Karttunen, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France / Esa-Pekka Salonen
Early
A New Venetian Coronation
Gabrieli Consort & Players / Paul McCreesh
Instrumental
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition Prokofiev Visions fugitives, Five Sarcasms. Steven Osborne
Opera
Puccini Il Trittico. Soloists; Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Antonio Pappano (dir. Richard Jones)
Orchestral
Suk Prague; A Summer's Tale. BBC Symphony Orchestra / Ji?í B?lohlávek
Vocal
Wagner Arias.
Jonas Kaufmann, Orch of the Deutsche Oper / Donald Runnicles
