The 2019 Gramophone Awards, held on 16 October in London’s glamorous DeVere Grand Connaught Rooms, celebrate this year’s outstanding contribution of classical artists to recorded music. IMG Artists congratulates Young Artist of the Year Jakub Józef Orliński; winners in the Contemporary category for Dean: Hamlet, conductor Vladimir Jurowski, baritone Rod Gilfry and countertenor Christopher Lowrey; and its wonderful nominees.

IMG Artists is also proud to have co-sponsored the Medici live stream of the event for our third year. It is our great privilege to share the astounding performances and this celebration of classical music with its fans around the world.

The event, hosted by Gramophone’s Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, featured stunning performances from many of the winners. Orliński thrilled the audience twice: singing “Vedro’ con mio diletto” from Vivaldi’s Il Giustino, RV 717, and the evening’s closing performance of two movements from Bach’s Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden, BWV 1083 with Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Dame Emma Kirkby, and Arte dei Suonatori.

Gramophone writes:Aged just 28, Jakub Józef Orliński has certainly proved himself worthy of being named Young Artist of the Year. Not many singers could switch roles at short notice to play the title role in Handel’s Rinaldo at Glyndebourne, whilst maintaining a side-hustle as a professional model and break-dancer. The potential pitfall for style over substance clearly doesn’t apply to Orliński, whose debut album ‘Anima Sacra’ on Erato was also deservedly shortlisted for this year’s Recital Award. Young Artist of the Year is presented in partnership with Nordoff Robbins.”

Gramophone’s Andrew Mellor writes that Contemporary winner, Opus Arte’s DVD release of the Glyndebourne’s production of Brett Dean’s Hamlet is “a triumphant one: a huge and heartening endorsement of operatic and theatrical principles in an age of musical plurality and patchy experimentation. The music revels in the beauty of Shakespeare’s words – heavily pruned, reorganised and reassigned by Matthew Jocelyn – almost every one of which is audible despite the roaring cacophony of three instrumental ensembles, electronics and a second chorus in the pit. …There are copious sound effects from those ensembles, none of them gimmicks and some of them related to the most fascinating developments in experimental film music.”

Jolly closed the ceremony with a reflection on the important role that music has in helping to unite the world. He said: “At a time of uncertainty and chaos, not just in this country, but globally, there is one thing that brings us all together. In this room we have people from all over the world, and yet we all share a common language – music. Music not just brings us together but it’s what holds us together. It provides hope and certainty, but also fantasy and escape. And in a world of increasing and shameless dishonesty it also provides truth. So, a simple request before we part – ‘Let us all remain brothers and sisters in music’.”