The Classic BRIT Awards returned to London’s Royal Albert Hall in exuberant form Wednesday, 13 June. Renée Fleming was named Female Artist of the Year and Sheku Kanneh-Mason took home both Male Artist of the Year and the Critics’ Choice in association with Apple Music.

The awards, hosted by Classic FM presenters Myleene Klass and Alexander Armstrong celebrate the diversity of this music honouring artists from classical, film, television, theatre and games music.

The 19-year-old cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason has had a meteoric rise since winning the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. Still in his first year at Royal Academy of Music in London, his Decca Classics debut Inspiration, the centrepiece of which is his recording of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, broke chart records in the UK hitting 11 on the Official UK Album Chart and number 1 in the Classical Chart. He was catapulted to worldwide attention in May 2018 with his stunning performance at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. His performance of his own arrangement of Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry” went viral on social media and was streamed more than 1 million times in its first month on Spotify alone.

The exquisite Renée Fleming, who was nominated for a 2018 Tony Award for her performance in the smash-hit revival of Carousel on Broadway, was honoured for her acclaimed performance of Marschallin in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera, and her soundtrack recordings of Academy Award winning and nominated films Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water. Ms Fleming’s new album Broadway will be released on 7 September, 2018 on Decca and is available for pre-order now.

 

Ms Fleming’s award was presented by “The hottest guitarist in the world” (The Sunday Times), Miloš Karadaglić.

The Classic BRITS will be broadcast on ITV in The UK on Sunday, 16 June at 10:30pm.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Miloš Karadaglić are managed by Enticott Music Management in association with IMG Artists.