The Directors of the Guernsey Music Bursary, which was set up in 2021 to help support aspiring young musicians in their studies at music college or university, have announced the award of bursaries for the coming academic year.
There are five successful candidates, who were selected following a rigorous audition process conducted by an independent selection panel in April. Applicants were required to have been offered a conditional place at a conservatoire, or university, or already be studying music off island. The objective of the panel was to identify those candidates who could demonstrate a high level of commitment to developing their musical career.
Although there is no requirement to do so, bursary recipients are encouraged to return to the island to give occasional recitals both during their course and upon graduation.
Three of the successful candidates are already studying at UK conservatoires and were in receipt of a Guernsey Music Bursary (GMB) bursary last year. All three were able to demonstrate to the panel that the bursary had made a real difference to their studies.
Jack Tostevin-Hall is about to graduate from his undergraduate degree at the Royal Academy of Music and next year has a place on their MA Postgraduate course Jacob Wright has just completed his second year of undergraduate study at the Royal Northern College of Music and has been also performing with the Southbank Sinfonia as part of the mentoring element of the GMB.
Annabelle Pizzey is about to graduate from her undergraduate degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and next year has a place on the MMus Postgraduate course at the Royal College of Music.
The awards to the other two successful candidates, who are in their final term at school, are conditional upon their being accepted onto their chosen courses.
Benjamin Childs has been learning the cello with Chris Holland of the Guernsey Music Service for the past 12 years, and also studies the piano. In both instruments he has passed Grade 8 exams with high Distinctions. He also plays the Town Church organ and has been taught by Stephen Le Prevost since 2018 and he plays the flugelhorn with The Salvation Army Band.
Benjamin is hoping to further his music education at the University of Manchester.
Madeleine Vaudin has been a part of the Guernsey Music Service since she was 7 years old, and recently achieved her grade 8 singing and Licentiate of Trinity College London (LTCL) diploma in flute performance. She plans to study Music at the University of Manchester, where she will have the opportunity to further her musical education and look into potential career paths such as Music Therapy.
The bursaries have been made possible by generous donations from music lovers in the island, who recognise that taking this first step onto the professional ladder is a crucial one for young musicians. As is well known, Guernsey punches well above its weight in developing young musicians and this bursary is already demonstrating that it is playing an important role.
In order to build up the charity’s reserves to cover the commitment being made for payments in future years, we are inviting donations from any individual, trust, corporation or other entity that is interested in helping to strengthen even further the island’s strong musical heritage by supporting Guernsey’s leading musicians of the future.
