Local hero claims breakthrough Brit award Saxophonist Amy Dickson, pictured in Adelaide last year, has been honoured at the Classical Brit Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London. NINE years after winning Australia's top award for young musicians, saxophonist Amy Dickson has been named breakthrough classical artist of the year in Britain. Dickson, 31, accepted the honour at the Classical Brit Awards on Wednesday night at the Royal Albert Hall in London. She is the first Australian to win the award. Dickson struck an elegant figure on stage, playing the sax solo in Mark Knopfler's Going Home, the uplifting theme from the movie Local Hero. The former Sydneysider claimed the award on the back of her crossover album Dusk and Dawn, which went straight to No1 in the British classical charts when it was released there earlier this year. Other nominees for the breakthrough award were American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja and Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth. "What a night," Dickson said after the celebrations yesterday. It was my first big acceptance speech. I was quite overwhelmed. The critics' award was won by superstar German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who will give concerts in Sydney and Melbourne for Opera Australia next year. Artist of the year awards went to Nicola Benedetti (appearing with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra next year) and conductor Daniel Barenboim. Dusk and Dawn features classical melodies arranged for alto saxophone - including the aria Casta Diva and Faure's Pavane - along with popular numbers such as Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Dickson said the album, released in Australia on October 18, captured the lush sound of film scores from the 1950s and 60s, such as that from 1968's The Thomas Crown Affair. "It's a sound I particularly love, the shimmering strings," she said. It's the most elegant sound. Dickson attracted attention in 2004 when she won the Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards. The finals of this year's awards begin in Melbourne today. Dickson said the Young Performers Awards was a wonderful competition that gave a huge boost to her career. "It opened up a world of experience and a world of dreams," she said. Her future projects include a recording with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and a debut with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra this month.