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€15,000 RDS Music Bursary for Young Irish Soprano

  • 23 July 2020

Ava Dodd from Dublin awarded RDS Music Bursary valued at €15,000. Judges describe her as ‘self-assured, confident, with a beautiful voice and instinctive musicality’. The winner of the 2020 RDS Jago Award of €5,000 is violist Séamus Hickey, from Cork.

€15,000 RDS Music Bursary for Young Irish Soprano

21-year-old soprano Ava Dodd is the winner of the 2020 RDS Music Bursary. Valued at €15,000, the RDS Music Bursary is the single largest annual classical music award in Ireland, and one of the largest in Europe. The RDS Jago Award of €5,000, the second prize in the RDS Music Bursary Programme was awarded to viola player Séamus Hickey from Cork. Both musicians will also receive professional performance engagements with RTÉ Orchestras as part of their prizes.

Ava has just completed her undergraduate degree of Bachelor of Music Performance (Vocal Studies) at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) & University of Dublin, Trinity College. She studied with Professor Mary Brennan (Vocal tutor) and Dr. Dearbhla Collins (Répétiteur). She was offered places and scholarships to study a master’s degree in Vocal Performance in all three of the main Conservatoires in London. In September 2020, she will begin a two-year master’s programme at The Royal College of Music, in London studying with Professor Janis Kelly.

“We are delighted to award Ava Dodd this year’s RDS Music Bursary; she really impressed the judges and undoubtedly is a performer with a very exciting career ahead of her” said RDS Chief Executive Michael Duffy. “We wish her every success with her postgraduate studies in London and look forward to welcoming her and Séamus Hickey to perform next year in the RDS with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Classical music has a strong tradition in the RDS, and we are excited about supporting talents such as Ava and Séamus we are supporting classical music performance in Ireland and encouraging these musicians to reach their full potential.”

Ava has won multiple awards including most recently in 2019, the ‘Most Promising Performer’ Award and Bursary at the Irene Sandford Competition (RIAM), and ‘Young Opera Voice of 2019’ at the Festival of Voice Competition, Northern Ireland Opera.

The winner of the 2020 RDS Jago Award of €5,000 is violist Séamus Hickey, from Cork. His musical education began in CIT Cork School of Music and he is now half-way through a four-year bachelor’s degree at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam where is studying viola under Nobuko Imai and Marjolein Dispa. Séamus will use his cash prize to help fund the remainder of his tuition fees and to enable him to take masterclasses.

Former General Manager of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Brian O’Rourke was chair of this year’s judging panel, which included Gerard Keenan, CEO of the Irish Chamber Orchestra, David Byers, former Head of Music in BBC Northern Ireland and former General Manager of the Ulster Orchestra, Pádhraic O’Cuinneagáin, Professor of Piano at TU Dublin Conservatoire and Catherine Leonard, Professional Violinist and Artistic Director of the Westport Chamber Music Festival.

In addition to the €15,000 prize, Ava will also benefit from some key RDS partnerships in 2021. She will perform with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and with Irish Heritage in London. Ava will also perform with RDS Jago winner Séamus Hickey as part of an RDS Music Bursary Winners Concert in the RDS Concert Hall in late autumn 2021 with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

For more information you can visit www.rds.ie/rds-foundation/arts/music-bursary

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