Jennifer Pike wins South Bank Show Award
The Breakthrough Award is the only category within the South Bank Show Awards that, following the nomination of 10 artists by The Times’ arts critics, is judged by a public vote. Hosted by Melvyn Bragg, the Awards recognise British achievement in the broadest spectrum of the arts, including all genres of music, theatre, television and literature. Recipients of other awards included the author JK Rowling, English National Opera’s production of The Turn of the Screw and The Barbican’s celebration of Thomas Ades’ work Traced Overhead.
The Breakthrough Award is specifically made to recognise artists who have made a significant impact within their fields during 2007. The year during which she turned eighteen, Jennifer Pike's engagements in 2007 included a debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony; an appearance at the Barbican’s Mostly Mozart Festival, engagements with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a Wigmore Hall recital, celebrating her eighteenth birthday. During 2008 she will build on these successes with returns to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, alongside debuts with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. During these two years, her considerable concerto repertoire has included the Beethoven, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Sibelius concerti, Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending and Vivaldi The Four Seasons. Finally, at the end of 2008 Jennifer embarks on an entirely new project, making her first recording with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for ABC Classics, recording the premiere of Australian composer Andrew Schultz’s Violin Concerto, at the composer’s invitation.
2007 also saw the inauguration of the Jennifer Pike Violin Trust, established by Nigel Brown to raise the funds needed to secure for Jennifer the use of her violin, a 1708 Matteo Goffriller.
Jennifer has embarked on the New Year with considerable excitement and we are delighted that her many, continued achievements have been recognised in this way by the South Bank Show Awards. It is indicative of the impact that she continues to have not only within her own field, but within the arts as a whole.
