The Stage

Pryce and Burrows to receive Welsh arts honour

Published Tuesday 12 September 2006 at 12:40 by Alistair Smith

Actor Jonathan Pryce, composers Ivor Novello and Karl Jenkins, classical singer Stuart Burrows, and rock band the Manic Street Preachers are to be recognised in this year’s HSBC Cymry for the World Honours - awards recognising the contribution made by Welsh talent to the performing arts.

The five winners will follow in the footsteps of Richard Burton, Gwyneth Jones, Shirley Bassey, Alun Hoddinott and Sian Phillips who received accolades at the inaugural awards in 2004. The biennial event will take place at the Wales Millennium Centre and will mark the venue’s second anniversary on November 26.

WMC chief executive Judith Isherwood commented: “This is very much in keeping with our own cultural ambitions to take the best of Wales to the world while bringing the best of the world to Wales.

“For a small country with a population of just three million, Wales has always punched above its weight in the performing arts world and continues to do so in music, film and theatre.”

Pryce is currently appearing in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on Broadway and has worked extensively on both stage and screen. Legendary composer Novello was recently remembered at a gala tribute show in the West End - Glamorous Night: the Musicals of Ivor Novello, hosted at the theatre which has been named after him, formerly the Strand.

Since making his debut at the Royal Opera house in 1967, Burrows has established himself as one of the world’s leading lyric tenors, while Jenkins is best known for his classical composition Adiemus. The Manic Street Preachers, meanwhile, will add the accolade to several Brit Awards which they have picked up in a career that dates back to 1986.