BBC Charity Appeals - Musical Theatre Bursary winners announced

Musical Theatre Bursary winners announced!

The BBC Performing Arts Fund has awarded Musical Theatre Bursaries totalling £142,500 to 50 aspiring musical theatre performers for help with tuition fees, living expenses, private lessons, travel, membership of professional organisations and remedial speech and physiotherapy.

Training to be a musical theatre performer can be very expensive. Many vocational courses charge over £10,000 per year. For the most talented students, the BBC Performing Arts Fund Musical Theatre Bursary tries to help bridge the gap in students’ and their families’ financial resources, championing excellence where there's a funding-gap. All applicants had to be able to demonstrate that being awarded a bursary will enable then to undergo training that they might not otherwise have afforded.

Applicants to the bursary were asked to apply online, where their applications were assessed anonymously by a panel of industry judges. Of more than 800 applicants, 350 were invited to auditions in Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and London. Four judges saw each person sing and then gave second auditions to the most impressive performers. Of the 83 individuals the panel saw and interviewed in a second audition, 50 secured funding to help them this academic year. They will also receive mentoring as part of their awards.

Meet some of the 2008 winners on the BBC Performing Arts Fund website.

The Performing Arts Fund receives revenue from the voting lines of BBC One entertainment programmes that seek to find new performing talent (including Fame Academy, How Do you Solve a Problem Like Maria? and I’d Do Anything).

Find out more about the BBC Performing Arts Fund on their website.