Sir Karl Jenkins has been awarded a Knighthood (Knight Bachelor) in the Queen's Birthday Honours, announced on 12 June 2015, for “services to composing and crossing musical genres”.

Jenkins is the first Welsh-born composer to be so honoured and the Knighthood follows an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005 and CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 2010.

The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, first performed in 2000, has become an international classical music phenomenon, with on average two performances per week around the world. The recording has been in the UK Classical Album Chart for 573 weeks, and 123,000 vocal scores have been purchased by choirs in every major country.

Karl Jenkins made this statement following the announcement: “I am delighted by this great honour and the recognition of my music, and am grateful and humbled that my works have been able to reach out to so many performers and listeners around the globe”.

October 2015 brings the publication of Karl Jenkins’s autobiography “Still With The Music” by Elliott & Thompson, written with Sam Jackson. Tied in with the book are a new compilation disc of his music and a box set reissue of his greatest works, to be released by Warner Classics. Jenkins conducts a concert on 30 October at the Royal Albert Hall, including Stabat Mater and The Armed Man, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Philharmonic Choir.