A handful of classical musicians has been acknowledged in the New Year Honours list today. The violinist and passionate champion of music education Nicola Benedetti received a CBE as did the genre-crossing composer Nitin Sawhney. The composer Shirley Thompson, who is also Reader and Head of Composition and Performance at the University of Westminster, received an OBE.  The pianist Christian Blackshaw was honoured with an MBE.

Two conductors best known for their work in the field of choral music were honoured with MBEs: Stephen Darlington, who until his retirement this year was Music Director of Christ Church College, Oxford, a post he held for 33 years, and David Hill, who for the past 20 years has been the Musical Director of the Bach Choir as well as holding posts with the BBC Singers, both Westminster and Winchester cathedrals and St John’s College, Cambridge.