IF YOU are a teenage student of music, you will be aware of Ireland’s largest classical music competition for post-primary schools. The Frank Maher Classical Music Awards are sponsored by Top Security and sponsored generously, with a €5,000 best prize.
There’s another €250 for each of the seven finalists; the imminent deadline for entries is Friday September 14.
Who is a candidate? Sixth year students of string, woodwind, brass and piano.
The €5,000 bursary is to fund the winner’s place of tuition, a recognised course at home or abroad. Alternatively the spend can be for a purchase necessary for the development of their talent. Past winners have put their bobs towards study at academies such as the Kronberg and Meadows School of Arts.
“Munster does very well in this competition but we have had no Limerick winner to date,” PR consultant Barbara Stone told Limerick Post. “It would be great to see Limerick in the finals – as opposed to the Hurling final!”
This year’s Frank Maher Awards were launched in Cork’s Crawford Gallery of Art with the 2013 winner present, violinist Mairéad Hickey and Emmet O’Rafferty, chairman of the Top Security Group. He is the man who set up the competition back in 2001 “to showcase outstanding young talent in classical music.”
“a wonderful and important career stepping stone for me”
The late Fr Frank Maher was a music teacher who is credited by the Chairman as being “a pioneer in the nurturing of musical talent.”
Speaking at the launch, Mairéad made the comment that “winning the Frank Maher Classical Music Awards was a wonderful and important career stepping stone for me. It has helped to open doors professionally, so I would certainly be encouraging any aspiring young musicians to enter the competition.”
Download the application form from www.frankmaherclassicalmusicalawards.com
