It was a history making moment at the U.K.’s Royal Philharmonic Society Awards.

British sitar virtuoso Jasdeep Singh Degun calls it an “absolute honour” and “a testament to the hundreds of Indian classical musicians in Great Britain,” to be the first sitar player to be named best instrumentalist at the prestigious classical music awards.

He composed and appeared in “Orpheus,” an acclaimed new version of Monteverdi’s “Orfeo.”  It combined Indian and Western classical music and was nominated for best large-scale composition

Singh Degun’s debut album “Anomaly” is available on Real World Records.