The Inaugural New Elizabethan Award Winners: Jesse Flowers, Lotte Betts-Dean and Andrey Lebedev

The Musicians’ Company has inaugurated a biennial award for guitarists and lutenists performing solo or ensemble music by composers from the two Elizabethan ages.

It represents a unique initiative for the Company in that it is the first of our awards to provide a musical link to the period between the Company’s foundation in 1500 and its Royal Charter in 1604.

On July 6th the Selection Round of the Company’s inaugural New Elizabethan Award took place in the David Josefowitz Recital Hall at the Royal Academy of Music.

The distinguished Panel comprised Judith Weir CBE, Dame Emma Kirkby, John Gilhooly OBE, Nigel North, Craig Ogden and Fabio Zanon, with Michael Lewin (Senior Warden) as non-voting chairman.

Of the eight performances, four were by soloists and four by ensembles. The Panel found, without exception, excellent qualities in each performance.

The two that the Panel finally selected to hold the New Elizabethan Award 2019 are:
Jesse Flowers (solo guitar) and the duo of Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano) and Andrey Lebedev (guitar)

The Holders of the New Elizabethan Award 2019 will share both the NEA Showcase at Wigmore Hall on Saturday February 9th 2019 and subsequent concerts.

 

 

 

 

The Panel on stage at the David Josefowitz Recital Hall
(Photograph: Amanda Ratcliffe)