Proper Job theatre company and Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir (Musical Director Susan Hollingworth) have been awarded a prestigious RPS (Royal Philharmonic Society) Music Award in the category of Learning and Participation for their imove production for the Cultural Olympiad - Cycle Song.
Presented in association with BBC Radio 3, the RPS Music Awards are the highest recognition for live classical music in the United Kingdom. Previous winners in the Learning and Participation category include Welsh National Opera, Spitalfields Music, Sing Up (the national singing campaign for schools) and English Touring Opera. The other projects shortlisted for this year's award included LSO on Track's contribution to the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics; the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's Anthem for a Child and Drake Music Scotland's Technophonia.
Musical Director Susan Hollingworth, of Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir, says: "It's incredible to have won the RPS Music Award and a real testimony to all of the months of hard work that everyone put in. The production wouldn't have been possible without the huge amount of support we received, so a very big thank you from all of us to all of our fantastic performers, partners, funders, sponsors and supporters."
Cycle Song was a spectacular celebration of the life and achievements of Albert 'Lal' White, the Scunthorpe steelworker who won countless trophies for cycling, including a silver medal at the 1920 Antwerp Olympic games. The combination of composer Tim Sutton's complex and uplifting score, a libretto by the Bard of Barnsley, Ian McMillan, and the creative vision of Musical Director Susan Hollingworth, Director James Beale and Designer Rhys Jarman ensured that Cycle Song was a moving and inspirational celebration of the area's Olympic hero and its industrial and sporting heritage. The project created an enormous sense of pride in all those who took part and introduced thousands of local residents to opera. Cycle Song shone a spotlight on North Lincolnshire as somewhere where exciting, creative events can happen and leaves a lasting legacy in the local area and beyond.
Posted: Mon 20th May 2013