Award listings - Edited by Alex Stevens

15 February 2013

Alex Stevens

Hallé St Peter’s wins business award: Lever Prize 2013

Hallé St Peter’s, the Hallé’s conversion of St Peter’s Church in Ancoats, central Manchester, has won the Lever Prize 2013, receiving £10,000 and ‘the opportunity to work with the members of the North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT)’, an independent group of ‘influential business leaders who work together to promote the long-term well-being of North West England.’ NWBLT’s mission is ‘to make the north west the UK’s most attractive region in which to live and work for generations to come.’ The Lever Prize, launched eight years ago, aims to boost the philanthropic traditions of the region’s industrial past, embodied by soap magnate William Lever after whom it is named. It is judged by NWBLT in partnership with Arts & Business open to arts groups, buildings, events, festivals, libraries and archives. Sir Mark Elder, musical director of the Hallé, said: ‘The Hallé is delighted to win the prestigious 2013 Lever Prize. The collaboration with the NWBLT will allow the Hallé to build on our exciting work in arts based training; work with companies in new and innovative ways and introduce a new choral competition for businesses all within our wonderful new rehearsal venue Hallé St Peter’s.’

www.halle.co.uk/about-st-peters.aspx

11 January 2013

Alex Stevens

Russian pair bag Elgar brace

Russian violinist Anastasia Vedyakova and organist and musicologist Mikhail Mischchenko have been been granted the Elgar Society’s certificate of merit ‘in recognition of their work in promoting the legacy of Sir Edward Elgar in a part of the world where there is little tradition of performing his works’. Mishchenko has given organ recitals across Austria with the Elgar organ sonata as the centrepiece and has produced several events in St Petersburg around the composer’s chamber works and organ music; while Vedyakova has directed several concerts in Moscow following an Elgar in Performance grant which provided her with scores for the string quartet, piano quintet, violin sonata, Sospiri and movements from the violin concerto.

www.elgar.org

30 November 2012

Tom Still

Catherine Lambert Junior Recital Prize

The final of the Association of English Singers and Speakers’ Catherine Lambert Junior Recital Prize was held in the Durrington Room of the Royal College of Music on 10 November. The winner of the £300 first prize was Julius Haswell, a student of Veronica Veysey Campbell. His memorised a themed programme of English song, poetry and prose was entitled Love lost through war. The runner-up was Natasha Agarwal, who studies with Caroline Crawshaw, and third place, plus the speech prize, was awarded to Rhys Jupiter Brown, another student of Veronica Veysey Campbell.

www.aofess.org.uk

Tom Still

Honorary doctorates for Ticciati and Glenys Hughes

Robin Ticciati, principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Glenys Hughes, former artistic director of the St Magnus Festival in Orkney, have recently been awarded honorary doctorates by Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt university.

www.hw.ac.uk

Tom Still

Christopher Bell honoured for ‘contribution to music in Scotland’

Christopher Bell, founder and artistic director of the National Youth Choir of Scotland, has been awarded a doctor of music (honoris causa) from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The award was made at the graduation and conferment of fellowships ceremony in Glasgow on 15 November, where Bell received the honour in respect of his contribution to music in Scotland. He founded the National Youth Choir of Scotland in 1996 to address a gap in high quality singing opportunities for Scotland’s youngsters. Since then, the organisation has grown to encompass four national choirs, a network of area choirs stretching from Stornoway to Dumfries, music education for pre-school children and a nationwide training and CPD programme.

www.nycos.co.uk