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Giovanni Guzzo has been named a fellow of the Academy, while Vilde Frang and Elena Urioste have been given honorary membership
The Royal Academy of Music has announced the musicians who will receive honours in 2026, marking the contribution of leading musicians who have made a significant impact in their field.
Violinist Giovanni Guzzo has been named as one of the Academy’s six new fellows, an honour reserved for alumni. The Venezualan soloist and conductor serves as concertmaster of Camerata Salzburg and has performed at prestigious venues and festivals worldwide.
Guzzo studied with French violinist Maurice Hasson, before going on to study at the Reina Sofia music school in Madrid. Aged 16, he was granted a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, graduating with the highest honours, and where he was later appointed as one of the youngest violin professors in the institution’s history.
The other fellows named are West End star Christine Allado, composer Gareth Coker, Academy professor and director of the junior jazz course Garth Lockrane, conductor Alexander Soddy and soprano Christina Gansch.
The Academy has also given honorary membership of the Royal Academy of Music to outstanding musicians who did not attend the institution. Violinists Vilde Frang and Elena Urioste have been included in this year’s list, as well as soprano Louise Alder, pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, plus conductors Elim Chan and Harry Christophers.
Frang will perform as soloist alongside an orchestra comprising Academy and Juilliard students this summer at the BBC Proms and Lincoln Center, while Urioste has performed with major orchestras across the world, and is artistic director of Chamber Music by the Sea, and co-director of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective.
Musical theatre and Shakespeare director Sir Trevor Nunn will receive an honorary degree (Hon DMus). Nunn has led some of the UK’s most prestigious theatrical institutions as artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (1968–1986), the National Theatre (1997–2003) and the Theatre Royal Haymarket (2011–present), and has won multiple Tony and Olivier Awards.
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