Benedetti is honoured in bleak New Year’s List

Benedetti is honoured in bleak New Year’s List

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norman lebrecht

December 29, 2018

The violinist Nicola Benedetti has been made a CBE in the New Year Honours list, upgraded from MBE in 2013.

There are few other musical honours.

The composer Nitin Sawhney, choral conductors David Hill and Stephen Darlington receive MBEs and the pianist Christian Blackshaw is also MBE.

UPDATE: Some additional honorees:

OBEs for composer Shirley Thompson and for Tommy Smith, head of Scottish National Jazz
Orchestra.

MBE for veteran CBSO cellist Jacqueline Tyler.

 

Comments

  • M McAlpine says:

    Honours are, of course, for those who deserve them. Perhaps musicians are lacking in this department. Mind you when the honours list comes out it is quite unfathomable how some people manage to get on it.

    • Una says:

      Yes, particularly when they’re getting them for just doing their job and relatively unknown! Great if they go that extra mile and do something over and above what they chose to do, or make an enormous contribution to Britain in whatever.

    • Jamesay says:

      Really? “Honours are for those who deserve them”??? Really? What planet are you living on ? I’d guess you think the Empire still exists?

    • Bruce says:

      “Honours are, of course, for those who deserve them.”

      So… if they got one, that means they deserved it! Yay! 🙂

  • Richard Bratby says:

    Very sorry that you missed Jacquine Tyler MBE, CBSO cellist of 5 decades’ standing who pioneered the orchestra’s groundbreaking education programme under Rattle in the 1980s and continues to play a leading role in the orchestra’s community work. A real example of the Honours system getting it exactly right.

  • Richard Bratby says:

    JACQUELINE Tyler – sorry – damn’ phone keyboard!

  • Alex Davies says:

    Some you missed:

    OBE:

    Tommy Smith, head of jazz, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and artistic director, Scottish National Jazz
    Orchestra.

    Composer Shirley Thompson.

    MBE:

    John Bennett, former chairman of the GSMD.

    Karen Humphreys, head of the Junior RNCM.

    Jacqueline Tyler, cellist in the CBSO.

    English Touring Opera’s Tim Yealland.

    BEM:

    Rachel Copley, musical director of Rotherham Choral Society.

    Elizabeth Glass, Eileen Pike, and Peter Wilson, all music teachers.

    Jeffrey Howard of the RWCMD, WNO, and WNYO.

  • Nick2 says:

    How does one jump from an ‘M’ to a ‘C’ in just five years?

    • Una says:

      By going into schools relentlessly and promoting classical and all other music to kids who wouldn’t otherwise know – and without making a song and dance about it but someone has noticed! None of that her job. She should have got the CBE from the start.

  • Jamesay says:

    It’s a corrupt secret system with sycophants taking awards for doing their jobs from an Empire that no longer exists. It’s an embarrassing anomaly in 2018. Conductors invariably get them simply for longevity. As a wise person once said, “Awards are like piles, sooner or later every A hole gets one”!

  • For all the jealousy and animosity these honors precipitate you’d think the recipients were getting something substantial out of it like a Big Mac or a jumbo Slurpy.

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