For the second time in its eight-year history, the Birmingham Accompanist of the Year Award has gone to joint winners. Nicholas Rimmer and Francois Salignat were awarded the prize at the finals on 29 November 2005 at Birmingham’s Adrian Boult Hall.Rimmer and Salignat – along with other finalists Yoko Oka and Simon Lane – played works by composers as diverse as Beethoven, Lutoslawski and Copland. Each pianist performed two 30-minute programmes with an instrumentalist and a singer.
Adjudicator Ian Burnside, himself an internationally renowned accompanist and broadcaster, found the task as daunting (as his predecessor Julius Drake did previously) and it was left to Yamaha’s Alistair Jones to tear the winner’s £1,500 cheque in two.
BAYA is organised by UCE Birmingham Conservatoire in association with Yamaha and the Incorporated Society of Musicians and remains one of only a few awards celebrating young professional accompanists.