Critics’ Circle launches new Early Music Award

It was a good night for Early Music. Two of the year’s major classical music awards ceremonies took place in London on 7 October, and both gave Early Music artists and recordings some of their top honours – a sign of how much vibrant work the sector is producing.

At the Critics’ Circle Music Awards, Early Music took a new place in the spotlight with the presentation of a dedicated award, sponsored by Continuo Foundation. Tina Vadaneaux, Continuo’s founder and CEO, presented the inaugural Early Music Award to Clare Norburn, artistic director of The Telling, at the ceremony in the Sky Bar at English National Opera.

Guests also heard French soprano Héloïse Bernard perform Purcell’s She Loves and She Confesses, accompanied by Aidan Phillips on harpsichord – an excerpt from The Telling’s recent production, Purcell, The Musical.

The new category recognises the ambition and achievement of the Early Music sector. Proposed to the Critics’ Circle’s Music Section in 2025, it is among the first awards in the organisation’s history to receive individual sponsorship. As in every category, an independent panel of critics selected the winner.

The Telling won the award for Into the Melting Pot and its associated Songs & Stories work with refugee and migrant communities. Centred on a Jewish woman forced to leave Spain in 1492, the project weaves Spanish Medieval music and Sephardic song together with stories of displacement and belonging. Workshops invited refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to contribute their own songs and experiences, creating new work alongside professional performers. 

Claudia Pritchard, chair of the Critics’ Circle Music Section, noted in her citation that ‘The Telling has created performances that bring together historical performance, theatre and social engagement with rare sensitivity. Medieval and early Renaissance repertoire becomes a living means of communication through which audiences can reflect on exile, identity, resilience and belonging across the centuries… Our judges particularly admired the way the work combines artistic integrity with genuine community collaboration.’

‘There is so much imagination and ambition in Early Music today, and we wanted to help give that work the recognition it deserves,’ said Continuo’s founder and CEO Tina Vadaneaux. ‘We’re grateful to the Music Section of the Critics’ Circle for embracing this new award. The Telling shows how music from centuries ago can speak directly to people’s lives now, and it was a pleasure to present the first award to Clare and celebrate what she and her team have achieved.’

Critics’ Circle Artist of the Year Awards were presented to two singers who have made outstanding contributions to Early Music. Countertenor Hugh Cutting was named Male Vocalist and mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor won Female Vocalist.

Both have appeared in Continuo Foundation-supported projects. Among others, Cutting features on the 2024 recording The Art of Obligato. Taylor recently made her debut as Dido with the Early Opera Company at London’s Temple Church, in a performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas supported by Continuo Foundation in partnership with the Purcell Society and Blackstone Chambers.

Elsewhere, Early Music was celebrated at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards, held in London the same evening. The Voice & Ensemble Award went to mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg and The Mozartists under Ian Page, for their recording of Gluck arias. Harpsichordist Jean Rondeau’s Louis Couperin: The Complete Works (Erato) was named Gramophone’s Recording of the Year, as well as winning the Instrumental Award. Concerto Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini won the Early Music Award for Stravagante pensiero: Gesualdo & Napoli (Naïve), a programme of Gesualdo and his lesser-known Neapolitan contemporaries, while Capella Sollertia and conductor Johanna Soller took the Choral Award for the first recording of the Leipzig Cantatas of Johann Ludwig Bach (Ricercar), a distant cousin of JS Bach. Isabelle Faust, a modern and baroque violinist with a deep, long-standing involvement in historically informed performance, was named Artist of the Year.

^{Cover image: Héloïse Bernard and Aidan Phillips perform at the Critic's Choice Awards on 7 October 2026 (credit: Sophia Evans)}