VIOLINIST Rachel Podger hit the right notes with the public after her recording was voted as a winner in the BBC Music Magazine Awards.

Brecon based Rachel’s CD Vivaldi L’Estro Armonico recorded with her group Brecon Baroque the winner of the magazine’s 2016 awards concerto category.

Rachel said: "It was a great honour to win this year’s award. I was very surprised. The other two nominees were great. Tchaikovsky, a Russian composer, was nominated for a piano piece. Shostakovich was the third composer nominated with a cello concerto. They are both romantic composers from the 20th century."

Rachel was in New York, teaching at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, when the award was announced.

As well as being a successful recording artist and teacher Rachel set up the annual Brecon Baroque Festival, which she has run for the past 10 years, and assembled her group for.

She said: "The group got together about 10 years ago at the first festival. and we’ve played all over the world.

"This CD is the third that we have recorded this year.

"I would like to say a huge thanks to all our Brecon fans who voted for us. "It’s great to be able to put Brecon on the map in terms of classical music.

"I was quite surprised that we won. It comes down to having lots of fans and friends. I’ve travelled a lot and performed in many different places. "We have a lot of friends in Texas and I think they got their iphones out and started voting straight away."

Rachel’s has previously enjoyed success in the BBC Music Magazine Awards, winning the instrumental category with a solo piece in 2014.

This year’s Brecon Baroque Festival takes place from October 21 to 24 and will be based around baroque music that was performed in London to coincide with this year marking the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare.

Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque’s Vivaldi L’Estro Armonico recording is released by Channel Classics, who Rachel has recorded with for more than 20 years.

Winners of the BBC Music Magazine Awards were announced at a ceremony at Kings Place on earlier in April and will appear in the May edition of BBC Music Magazine.