Composer Gavin Higgins has won the 2023 Classical Music Award at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards for his Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Orchestra.

Hosted by broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, the annual South Bank Sky Arts Awards recognises British achievements in the arts, hosted at London's Savoy Hotel.

Written for the The Tredegar Band with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Higgins's Concerto Grosso was premiered at the 2022 BBC Proms under conductor Ryan Bancroft. 

The commission was the first time in over a decade that a brass band had performed at the Proms and the first brass-band-dedicated Prom in over 33 years.

Growing up around brass bands and their music, Higgins's work aimed to give brass bands 'the recognition and platform they deserve', describing it as a celebration of music 'made by the working classes and that is at the very heart of the British musical landscape'.

Higgins's work also won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Large-Scale Composition earlier this year.

Among the nominations for the Classical Music award were Sally Beamish's work Hive and The Oracle - a collaboration between Manchester Collective and cellist Abel Selaocoe.

The English National Opera's production of The Rhinegold received the award for opera.