Established in 1924 and endowed by W.W.Cobbett (Master 1928-1929 and a well-regarded amateur violinist), a silver gilt medal is presented annually to a distinguished musician in recognition of services to Chamber Music. A list of winners is shown below.
Walter Willson Cobbett CBE (1847-1937) was also connected with, and gave his name to a number of competitions for Chamber Music composition. Two of these were conducted under the auspices of the Musicians' Company (1905 and 1907) and in 1955 there was also a Memorial Competition in Cobbett's name to celebrate 50 years since the original Phantasy Prize. Details of these competitions are presented in the Manuscripts section of this website.
Here are links to those pages, which also include many of the submissions:
Shown right is a 1929 painting by Frank Owen Salisbury (1874-1962) called The Concert Party. It was commissioned by Cobbett in 1926 and shows him playing the Chausson Concerto for piano and violin with his own string quartet. It featured as the frontispiece of Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, London, OUP, 1929.
Hanging from the top arch is a scroll that reads "Music of the nobler kind is the soul of things expressed in sound".
The painting is oil on canvass 40.5"x30.5" and was sold in 2017 at an auction in Surrey. Click the image to expand.
Past winners:
1924 - Thomas Frederick Dunhill
1925 - Mrs. Frederick Coolidge (USA)
1926 - Alfred J Clements (see also here)
1927 - Harry Waldo Warner
1928 - Sir Edward Elgar
1929 - Frank Bridge
1930 - Ralph Vaughan Williams
1931 - Arnold Bax
1932 - John Ireland
1933 - Prof. Charles Wood (awarded posthumously)
1934 - Cecil Armstrong Gibbs
1935 - Richard Watkins
1936 - Sir Donald Tovey
1937 - Pablo Casals
1938 - Ivor James
1939 - Herbert Withers
1940 - Isolde Menges
1942 - Ernest Walker
1943 - Sidney Griller
1944 - Dame Myra Hess
1945 - Herbert Walenn
1946 - Lionel Tertis
1947 - William Walton
1948 - Michael Tippett
1949 - Gordon Jacob
1950 - Denis Brain
1951 - Gerald Moore
1952 - Frederick Thurston
1953 - Sir Arthur Bliss
1954 - Leon Goossens
1955 - Edmund Rubbra
1956 - Arthur Benjamin
1957 - Thurston Dart
1958 - Kathleen Long
1959 - Yehudi Menuhin
1960 - George Malcolm
1961 - Lennox Berkeley
1962 - Anne Macnaghten
1963 - Norbert Brainin
1964 - Emmanuel Hurwitz
1965 - Joan Dickson
1966 - Howard Ferguson
1967 - Kenneth Leighton
1968 - Elizabeth Maconchy
1969 - Hugh Bean
1970 - Cecil Aronowitz
1971 - Watson Forbes
1972 - Denis Matthews
1975 - Janet Craxton
1976 - Gordon Crosse
1977 - Ivor Newton
1978 - Wilfrid Parry
1979 - Edwin Roxburgh
1981 - Hugh Maguire
1985 - Christopher Hogwood
1986 - Philip Jones
1987 - Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
1988 - Lady Evelyn Barbirolli
1989 - Jack Brymer
1990 - Sidonie Goossens
1991 - Eileen Croxford
1992 - Elgar Howarth
1993 - Nona Liddell
1994 - Irvine Arditti
1995 - Levon Chilingirian (see also Here)
1996 - Amelia Freedman
1997 - Prof. Yfrah Neaman
1998 - David Takeno
1999 - Richard Sotnick
2000 - Christopher Rowland
2001 - William Lyne
2002 - Julian Bream
2003 - John Woolf
2004 - Sigmund Nissel
2005 - Peter Cropper
2006 - John Underwood
2007 - Martin Lovett
2008 - Joseph Horovitz
2009 - Graham Johnson
2010 - Stephen Dodgson
2011 - Stephen Kovacevich
2012 - Malcolm Singer
2013 - Susan Tomes
2014 - Richard Ireland
2015 - Trevor Pinnock
2016 - Steven Isserlis CBE
2017 - Kenneth Sillito
2018 - William Bennett OBE
2019 - John Gilhooly OBE
2020 - Emma Johnson MBE
2021 - Corina Belcea
2022 - Nicholas Daniel OBE
2023 - Lawrence Power
Both sides of the Cobbett Medal. This one is inscribed to the Winner in 2009 - Mr Graham Johnson.
The inscription reads:
"For Services to The Art of Chamber Music"
Here is the actual medal awarded to Sir Edward Elgar OM in 1928, which is held by the Elgar Birthplace Museum.
Two pages from the Court Minutes of 8th July 1924, recording the original £50 endowment by W.W.Cobbett and an original design drawing of the Medal.
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