The Cobbett Medal 2022: Nicholas Daniel OBE
Nicholas Daniel has been awarded the Musicians’ Company Cobbett Medal, an annual award given by the Company to recognise outstanding contributions to chamber music. The Cobbett Medal was inaugurated by the Company in 1924 and previous winners have included Edward Elgar, Frank Bridge, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and more recently John Gilhooly and Emma Johnson.
Nicholas Daniel has long been acknowledged as one of the world’s great oboe players. In a distinguished career that began more than four decades ago, he has become an important ambassador in many different musical fields, and has significantly enlarged the repertoire for his instrument with the commissioning of hundreds of new works. He records and broadcasts widely, including regular recordings on the Chandos label. He has directed several music festivals and concert series and has been Music Director of the Leicester International Music Festival and lunchtime series for twenty years. Nicholas has been a concerto soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, performing a huge range of repertoire from Bach to Xenakis, premiering works written for him by composers including Harrison Birtwistle, Henri Dutilleux, James MacMillan, Thea Musgrave, John Tavener and Michael Tippett, as well as encouraging many younger composers to write for the oboe. His recording of concertos by Vaughan Williams and MacMillan was awarded the BBC Music Magazine Premiere Award in 2016. As chamber musician Nicholas is a founder member of the award-winning Britten Sinfonia, the Haffner Wind Ensemble and the Britten Oboe Quartet. In 2012 he received the prestigious Queen’s Medal for Music, for his “outstanding contribution to the musical life of the nation”.
Nicholas Daniel was presented with his Cobbett Medal at the Court Meeting on Wednesday 19th April from the Master , Jeff Kelly.