Gemma Summerfield receives final Chilcott Award

Gemma Summerfield (photo Arno Photography)

Soprano Gemma Summerfield has been awarded the Chilcott Award for British Singers, the biennial prize given by the Susan Chilcott Scholarship, an independent charity set up in 2005 in memory of Susan Chilcott, one of the outstanding singers of her generation, who died from cancer in 2003 aged 40. This year's award is the final one to be awarded by the charity.

The biennial Chilcott Award is made to an opera singer who, like Susan Chilcott herself, has the potential to make an international impact within the world of opera. Previous winners have included Duncan Rock (2012), Clare Presland (2014) and Soraya Mafi (2016). The Award is specifically designed to enable advanced training or career development, from ongoing vocal tuition and accompanists, to practical help with some of the ‘hidden’ costs of the craft, including travel to auditions, purchasing scores and creating recordings and promotional material. This year's award to Gemma Summerfield was £10,000.

Gemma Summerfield was winner of the First Prize and the Song Prize at the 2015 Kathleen Ferrier Awards as well as the Jean Meikle Prize for a Duo at the 2017 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. This autumn, she will make her house debut at Wexford Festival Opera as Paula Johnson in the European première of William Bolcom’s opera, Dinner at Eight (20 October – 4 November) and her debut with Scottish Opera as Pamina in The Magic Flute in Spring 2019.