Wednesday 10 May 2023

Young Talent: news on schemes supporting young conductors, singers, performers and composers

Carys Davies, a previous member of WNO Youth Opera and current RWCMD student, performed in WNO’s main scale production of The Magic Flute.
Carys Davies, a previous member of WNO Youth Opera and current RWCMD student, in WNO’s main scale production of The Magic Flute.

The step between conservatoire and professional performer is quite a big one, and many organisations offer schemes that help this transition. There has been quite a bit of new in this area recently, there is a new Leverhulme Conducting Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and Welsh National Opera are sharing a new multi-million pound legacy, the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland is starting a fund to support NYOS Camerata, a pre-professional chamber ensemble, and the current London Philharmonic Orchestra Young Composers scheme is reaching its concluding concert with five new works being directed by Brett Dean.

Following a selection process involving 150 global candidates, British-Canadian conductor Riley Court-Wood has been appointed as the new Leverhulme Conducting Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS). The fellowship, in association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is for conductors on the cusp of their careers, offering a further step in the journey between study and the professional podium. Riley will work extensively with Martyn Brabbins – RCS’s Visiting Professor of Conducting and the Music Director of English National Opera – and will take up the role in September 2023, succeeding Emilie Godden. Further details from the RCS website.

Riley Court-Wood - new Leverhulme Conducting Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Riley Court-Wood - new Leverhulme Conducting Fellow
at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
A multimillion pound legacy, shared between the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) and Welsh National Opera (WNO), will support the training of singers and musicians and also create future opportunities for young artists to perform on a professional scale.  The late Philippa and David Seligman  were passionate supporters of the arts, and David has left legacies exceeding £3 million pounds to RWCMD and WNO. 

RWCMD’s David Seligman Opera School offers a fully integrated operatic training experience, with storytelling through music and drama at the heart of its intensive, personalised training. Part of the legacy will be directly invested into the productions, whilst crucially-needed new scholarships will also be created in the Seligman name for opera and other music disciplines. 

WNO Youth Opera was established in the mid-1990s as a way for the WNO company to share its love of opera with aspiring young singers. The impact of David’s legacy will ensure that WNO Youth Opera can present a showcase performance every year. The legacy also allows for a continuation of a talent development pathway that has historically linked both WNO and RWCMD. Numerous youth opera alumni have gone on to train at the College and then subsequently returned to WNO in a professional capacity. Further details from the RWCMD website.

The National Youth Orchestras of Scotland (NYOS) has announced the launch of a new fund to create opportunities for aspiring young musicians. The Richard Chester Creativity Fund honours the life and legacy of Richard Chester MBE, the visionary Director of NYOS from 1987 to 2007 who passed away in 2020. 

The fund aims to honour Richard by raising £20,000 for NYOS in his memory. One of the projects that will benefit from the fund is NYOS Camerata, a pre-professional chamber ensemble for musicians aged 18–25. Bridging the gap between youth orchestra and professional ensemble, NYOS Camerata provides opportunities for exceptional young musicians through a range of performances and collaborations, working alongside inspiring professional musicians. 

To celebrate the launch of the fund, NYOS Symphony Orchestra will perform alongside guest soloist, violinist Elena Urioste, in Perth Concert Hall on 15 July. Conducted by Martyn Brabbins, the current Music Director for English National Opera, the programme features music from Strauss, Elgar and Coleridge-Taylor. Full details from the NYOS website.

This year’s London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) Young Composers scheme culminates on Thursday 13 July at 7.30pm at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall with its annual Debut Sounds concert, this year entitled Where to Begin? The 2022/23 cohort have created five new works inspired by other artforms, guided and conducted by LPO Composer-in-Residence Brett Dean.

The five new works take their leads from artforms including etching, animation, painting and circus. The composers and their pieces are:
  • Jakob Bragg Through gates unseen inspired by the artist Robert Andrew
  • Philip Dutton Etched inspired by the physical movement and experience of etching, and by artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi
  • Zakiya Leeming Eagle in the Ropes inspired by aerial arts
  • Matt London there must be more nature inspired by the artwork of Hundertwasser
  • Tayla-Leigh Payne i inspired by short films by Norman McLaren and Stan Brakhage
Each work will be performed by a chamber orchestra of 30 musicians comprising LPO players and Foyle Future Firsts, the LPO’s programme that bridges the transition between education and the professional platform for outstanding early-career orchestral musicians.  Further details from the LPO website.

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