THE top prize in one of country’s biggest classical music competitions for secondary schools has been increased to €5,000 this year.
At the launch of Top Security’s Fr Frank Maher Classical Music Awards for 2016, members of the internationally renowned RTÉ Contempo Quartet, Bogdan Sofei, Ingrid Nicola, Andreea Banciu and Adrian Mantu were accompanied by sixth year music students Aviva-Brianna Kearney (17) from Sutton Park School and Cathal Killeen-Molloy (17) from Rockbrook Park School, Rathfarnham.
Emmet O’Rafferty, chairman of Top Security, established the awards in 2001 in memory of the late priest who was a music teacher at his old school.
Emmet said: “It’s hard to believe now but Fr Frank Maher was something of a pioneer in establishing music as a subject in a boys’ school at a time when music was regarded essentially as a girls’ subject. That attitude has completely changed, due largely to the work of music educationalists like Fr Frank Maher.”
The Aawards were created by Top Security to showcase outstanding young musical talent in Ireland and are open to sixth year post-primary students of strings, woodwind, brass and piano. The €5,000 top prize will be used by the winner to attend a recognised place of tuition, a course of study in Ireland or abroad or on a purchase necessary for the development of their talent. The finalists will each receive a €250 bursary.
Past winners have used their winnings to fund attendance at many of the world’s most prominent music colleges, which include Shenandoah University, Virginia in the US, Conservatoire Nationale Superieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, Kronberg Academy in Germany, the Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, Texas, and the Royal Academy of Music in London, to name a few.
Welcoming the launch of the 2016 Awards, the RTÉ Contempo Quartet added: “We are delighted to be part of this year’s Fr Frank Maher awards. We met when, as very young students studying in Bucharest, we came to understand what wonderful things can happen in life when you make music together.”
The closing date for entries is Thursday, October 13.
Seven finalists will be selected by an independent board of adjudicators to attend the competition night on Friday, November 11 at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin to perform in front of an invited audience.
Full details, including rules and a copy of the application form for downloading, are on www.topsecurity.ie