2005 Education Bursary Winners
The Education Bursary was awarded to five young musicians in 2005 who have all been benefiting from the award.
Cormac Byrne - Percussion / Bodhran
Cormac has played percussion since the age of four. In 2000 he moved to Manchester to study percussion at the Royal Northern College of Music and developed a loved for the Bodhran (traditional Irish drum) as well as folk and traditional music from Ireland and across the globe.
He formed folk band Uiscedwr with Anna Esslemont, which has enjoyed much success including winning the BBC Young Folk Award in 2003 and receiving a nomination for the Horizon Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2005. Cormac has also worked with several other bands including the Seth Lakeman band, Danish based Baltic Crossing and Jez Lowe.
Since winning his bursary, Cormac has been busy recording the his first two albums. Cormac attributes the Performing Arts Fund as being crucial to the funding of this project.
Read Cormac's 2008 update
Guy Button - Violin
Guy has played the violin since the age of six and is now creating a career in music. He has studied at the Purcell School of music since the age of 11 and gained a place at Robinson College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. He has performed at the Wigmore Hall, St Johns ' Smith square and many other venues and made his concerto debut in 2006 playing the Mendelssohn concerto with the Solent Symphony Orchestra.
Guy says that winning the Education Bursary has opened so many doors with university fees, concert tours and with the everyday cost of being a musician no longer an issue. His string quartet won a class in the Portsmouth Music festival, Guy also won a solo award. His string quartet toured Austria in the summer and took part in a chamber music course (courtesy of his bursary award).
Katrina Marzella - Baritone Horn
Katrina began taking baritone horn lessons and played in several local ensembles including top Scottish band, Whitburn Band. She was a member of the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland before joining the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain in 2002, holding the principal baritone position.
Katrina has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls including the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall. She was the Scottish Schools Solo Champion for five successive years and became the Scottish Solo Champion at both Youth and Open levels in 2004. Katrina also won the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist competition in 2004.
Since then she has become the first baritone player to study at postgraduate level at the Royal Northern College of Music and in June 2007 Katrina went to the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference (ITEC) in Denver, Colorado and returned to America in December to perform another solo in Boston.
Read Katrina's 2008 Update
George Humphreys - Voice
George is a Bass-Baritone Singer and his main interests are Opera, Song and Oratorio. He has a degree in Music from Cambridge and has a full scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London. As a chorister with Christ Church Cathedral and a singer with St John's College, Cambridge, George has toured the world and made numerous recordings.
We has now performed in 4 operas; Don Giovanni (Masetto) and Albert Herring (Supt Budd) for British Youth Opera, The Magic Flute (Papageno) for the Choir of London, and The Marriage of Figaro (Figaro) under Sir Colin Davis at the Royal Academy of Music.
He went on a 2 week tour to Palestine, visiting Jerusalem, Ramallah and Nablus, working with local groups and children's choirs. George was involved in performing the first fully staged opera ever in the Occupied Territories.
George sang at the Proms with the Monteverdi Choir, and on Radio 3's In Tune with Sean Rafferty. He has also won a place on the Royal Academy of Music's Opera Course.
Claire Groom - Voice
Claire graduated with Distinction from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, which lead to her taking the principal role of Magda in Puccini's La Rondine. In her final year at the RNCM she was awarded the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for the Singing of Strauss, Bruce Millar/Gulliver Prize, Eva Turner Award, Diva Opera Young Artist Award and the Robin Kaye Memorial Prize.
Highlights included touring Germany with Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder, singing in the BBC Proms/ Radio 3 and performing at the Wigmore Hall and the Bridgewater Hall. Claire made her Royal Albert Hall debut in Handel's Messiah, as a result of which she was invited back to sing Mozart Requiem in 2006 and the Messiah again in the Forbidden City Concert Hall, Beijing. 2006 highlights included a performance with Jose Carreras as Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus hosted by Sir John Major, a tour of Europe in the principal roles of Adina ( L'Elisir D'amore ) and Lauretta ( Gianni Schicchi ) for Diva opera and the role of Violetta ( La Traviata ) in the Isle of Man.
In 2007 Claire performed the role of Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) in the same European tour.
Winning the bursary has enabled Claire to move nearer to London for rehearsals and coaching, pay for travelling expenses, record a CD, have evening gowns specially designed and made for her and pay for regular coaching sessions with international singers to help with the learning of her roles.
Read Claire's 2008 update