National Sawdust is one of the few premiere non-elitist presenters overtly supporting minorities, such as through its Hildegard Competition for emerging female, trans, and nonbinary composers. Its goal is to provide composers and musicians across genres a setting where they are given unprecedented support and critical resources. With each festival, it tries to dig deeper into the purpose of providing a place where music and performance thrives, even of the classical music variety.

Explore all winners of this year’s Classical Post Awards.