The Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Musician Programme has announced its annual grants to young composers and musicians. So far this year, 30 young musicians have joined the RPS Young Musicians, benefitting from grants totaling £65,000. The RPS Young Musicians Programme supports outstanding talent of the next generation, from first year music students to nascent young professionals, and this year’s grants aim to facilitate musical development across this spectrum – from help towards the purchase of quality instruments for music students and enabling further advanced study abroad with the best in the business, to the commissioning of new music from some of the UK’s most striking young composers.

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Instrument Purchase

Without quality instruments, musical development can stall. The RPS Young Musicians fund for Instrument Purchase, supported by the Sir John Barbirolli Memorial Foundation seeks to redress this issue by making non-repayable grants to help students of limited financial means purchase better instruments.

For 2015/16, the RPS Young Musicians Programme has awarded grants to 15 students totaling £20,150 from eight major conservatoires across the UK. Such has been the demand in recent years, in an attempt to steer the funding towards those that need it most, conservatoire Principals were again asked to nominate a shortlist of the students most in need of help. This year’s grants will help towards the purchase of a range of instruments, including: two French horns; two violas; xylophone; double bass; accordion; two Bb clarinets; bass clarinet; oboe; two alto saxophones; a piccolo and a cello bow.

The RPS is grateful to the ABRSM, the exam board of the Royal Schools of Music; the Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation; the Mercers’ Company; the Andor Charitable Trust; the Kirby Laing Foundation; and individual donors who have contributed towards this fund.

Click here for the list of recipients

Study Abroad

The 2015 Royal Philharmonic Society Julius Isserlis Scholarship has been awarded to former Royal Academy of Music student, 25-year-old London-based Latvian violinist Kristine Balanas. She will receive £10,000 to enable her to study at the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. An award for £5000 goes to recent Royal Academy graduate, trumpeter Imogen Hancock, who will also continue her studies in Germany.

This year’s Isserlis selection panel, chaired by Edward Blakeman, included Peter Bassano, performer and conductor; violinist Margaret Faultess, Director of Performance Studies at Cambridge University and Quentin Poole, conductor and former Director of Music at the Purcell School.

Click here for the list of recipients

Young Composers

Six composers have been selected by a distinguished jury to write new works for performance at prestigious venues in 2016 through the Royal Philharmonic Society’s annual Composition Prize for composers aged under 29. The composers were selected from 71 applicants by the RPS composition prize jury of composers Unsuk Chin, Sally Beamish and former Editor for New and Specialist Music at the BBC, Andrew Kurowski.

The RPS Composition Prize is supported by: Britten-Pears Foundation, the Garrick Charitable Trust, Alan Horne Memorial Fund, The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation and receives additional support for the Cheltenham Festival commission from the Susan Bradshaw Composers’ Fund.

Click here for the list of recipients

14 July 2015