Prestigious award for six young NI musicians

The six award recipients include classical awardees, opera singer, Andrew Irwin, cellist, Angus McCall and pianist, Justine Gormley; traditional music awardees, Jack Warnock and Rose Connolly and, singer-songwriter awardee, Roisin Donald (ROE).

The biennial awards which are run by the Arts Council in collaboration with BBC Northern Ireland and supported by National Lottery funding, aim to showcase and support the development of young musicians from the region by providing individual funding awards of up to £5,000.

This funding enables the recipients to spend a sizeable amount of time learning from a master musician, mentor, teacher or composer either in Northern Ireland or abroad.

For the first time, the awards have been extended beyond the classical and folk music arenas reaching out to singer-songwriters in the region.

As well as this training opportunity, the awardees will receive two professional radio broadcast engagements, including one with the Ulster Orchestra in 2021. Performances at this level raise not only the professional profile of the young musicians but also give a boost to their performance experience.

Highlighting BBC Radio Ulster’s continuing commitment to specialist music and to developing new musical talent, three presenters from the station will mentor the new awardees in helping them prepare for their upcoming performances with the Ulster Orchestra which will be broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle. John Toal, a classical pianist and presenter of Classical Connections will mentor the three classical musicians while Folk Club presenter, Lynette Fay, will mentor the folk musicians and Stephen McCauley of The Stephen McCauley Show will mentor the singer-songwriter.

Ciaran Scullion, head of Music, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, said: “Congratulations to all six musicians on receiving these awards which offers a unique opportunity to develop musical skills, learn from the best and perform live with our tremendous Ulster Orchestra.

“All of the previous recipients of this award have gone on to have incredibly successful careers in music and I’ve every confidence that the new recipients will benefit greatly from this experience.”

Paul McClean, executive editor Arts and Music, BBC Northern Ireland, added: “We are delighted to be involved in finding new classical, traditional and singer/songwriting artists and to be able to have our listeners engage in their journey as they grow and develop with some help from John, Lynette and Stephen.”