Previous winners

Venezuelan/Italian pianist Luis Parés enjoys an international career as a soloist and chamber musician having performed in numerous countries in Europe, Asia, North and South America. He has appeared at the most prestigious British venues, including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and Bridgewater Hall among many others.

Anna began her musical studies in Ireland before training at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music in London. Whilst at the College she studied with Itzhak Rashkovsky and was awarded many prizes including the college’s prestigious Mills Williams Junior Fellowship and the Tagore Gold Medal which was presented to her by Prince Charles. She also won the Raymond Fox Bursary from the UK’s ‘Making Music Society’ and the Serena Neville prize from the Concordia Foundation.

Gabriella Swallow has emerged as one of the most versatile and exciting cellists of her generation. She studied at The Royal College of Music with Jerome Pernoo. She was awarded the coveted Tagore Gold Medal and performed Hugh Wood’s Cello Concerto in her final year after winning the concerto competition.

Described as “the most distinctive violinist of her generation” (The Independent), Ruth Palmer is praised by audiences and critics alike for her “intensity” and “poetic grandeur” (The Guardian).

Elizabeth is one of the most talented violinists to have emerged from Ireland and performs internationally as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. Now London based, she was most recently guest leader of the dynamic and exciting Aurora Orchestra at the Oxford Lieder Festival, having toured with them to Australia in October 2014 as principal violin at the Melbourne Arts Festival for their residency there. She has also been invited as guest principal to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia orchestras.