The fourth annual Critics’ Circle Music Awards were announced last week, with George Benjamin receiving the 2014 Award for Outstanding Musician.
The Chair of the Critics’ Circle’s Music Section, Guy Dammann, said:
“Following the performance of his first orchestral work at the BBC Proms in 1980, the 20-year-old composer George Benjamin was immediately heralded as one of the brightest stars in the firmament of British contemporary music. Over three decades later his reputation seems only to grow with the emergence of each new beautifully crafted work. Even so, the critics and public alike were awed by Benjamin’s recent opera, Written on Skin, which seems to have awakened a new force in the composer and opened up deeper reaches in his musical imagination. In recognition of this achievement, the Critics’ Circle’s music section is proud to confer their highest honour on George Benjamin in the form of the 2014 Award for Outstanding Musician.”