John Clementi Collard Life Fellowship

The Collard Life Fellowship was established by the Musicians’ Company to be awarded to the most distinguished British composer of the time.

The first recipient of the Fellowship was Sir Edward Elgar in 1931. On his death, the Life Fellowship was awarded to Ralph Vaughan Williams and, subsequently, to Herbert Howells (who was Master of the Company in 1959). When Howells died in 1983, the award fell into abeyance. In 2015 it was awarded to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CH CBE and in 2022 to Sir James MacMillan CBE.