Borletti-Buitoni Trust reveals BBT Artists 2024

Florence Lockheart
Friday, March 15, 2024

Awards of £30,000 and Fellowships of £20,000 have been awarded to ensembles and soloists to facilitate a range of creative projects

The Leonkoro Quartet recieves an Award of £30,000 to facilitate a creative project © Peter Adamik
The Leonkoro Quartet recieves an Award of £30,000 to facilitate a creative project © Peter Adamik

The Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) has today revealed the winners of its Awards and Fellowships in 2024. The chosen artists and ensembles will collaborate with BBT on a range of creative projects from commissioning and recording to multi-genre performances for diverse audiences.

The awards and fellowships are announced around the same time every year to coincide with the 17 March birthday of Franco Buitoni (1934-2016), who co-founded BBT with his wife Ilaria Borletti Buitoni.

Toby Smith, who succeeded Susan Rivers as BBT chief executive in January 2024, said: ‘Perhaps the greatest pleasure of my first months leading the Borletti-Buitoni Trust has been getting to know the artists we are supporting, and to understand their ambitions and hopes for the future. And now it is an equal pleasure to share with you the 12 remarkable artists with whom the Trust will co-create bespoke programmes to energise their artistic development over the next years.

Awards of £30,000 have been given to the Leonkoro Quartet and Mithras Trio, while Fellowships of £20,000 have been awarded to violinist Hana Chang, double bass player Will Duerden, soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko and clarinettist Jonathan Leibovitz.

Smith added: ‘I am so looking forward to working alongside these artists and the brilliant BBT team to build on the vision of Ilaria Borletti Buitoni and her late husband Franco Buitoni, to nurture musicians who are shaping a future where classical music’s remit and reach is urgent, relevant and broad.’