2009 Awardee: Terri O’Brien

I cannot begin to tell you how thankful I am [to receive the award]. I was on the verge of giving up my place before you graciously stepped in to help me!

YEAR OF AWARD: 2009
AGE AT AWARD: 22
ARTFORMS:
 
 
 

Biography

Glasgow-based Terri O’Brien, whose stage name is Terri O’Ryan, started pursuing her ambition to work in musical theatre at the Glasgow Academy of Musical Theatre. She went on to study at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts for three years, where she was considered to be one of the four top students of her year.

At LIPA she impressed particularly with her acting talent. In her second year, she had a major role in the workshop production of “The Boys in the Photograph” (formerly known as “The Beautiful Game”) with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton. Ben was particularly impressed with the truthfulness of her work.

Terri won a coveted place on the postgraduate diploma course in musical theatre at the Royal Academy of Music, for which the competition is extremely fierce. Here she can develop her skills in acting, singing and dancing in order to progress to the West End stage.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help towards the fees for the postgraduate course at RAM.

Since the Award

Terri graduated in 2010 with a postgraduate diploma in musical theatre. She was signed up with a top London agent while still on the course. Terri writes of the course that as a result she feels a more established performer, “I know what I need to do in a practise room, but I also know exactly what I need to do in a situation that could end with me getting a job.”

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I cannot begin to tell you how thankful I am [to receive the award]. I was on the verge of giving up my place before you graciously stepped in to help me!

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2009 Awardee: Toby Lord

I was over the moon this morning to receive your letter….I would be thrilled to accept your generous offer.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2009
AGE AT AWARD: 23
ARTFORMS:
 
 
 

Biography

Toby Lord, from South Queensferry, was spotted as ‘one to keep tabs on’ when he attended a workshop on stage combat while still a first-year acting student.

Currently in the final year of a degree course in musical theatre at Guildford School of Acting, Toby has developed into a skilled and exciting performer, recently showing dexterity and playfulness in his portrayal of Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew.

Toby’s particular passion is stage and screen combat in which he has already achieved impressive qualifications. His quick responses and awareness of his surroundings, as well as a great deal of hard work, have helped him to become an Advanced Actor Combatant. He will be in great demand for both TV and film work.

Toby has already been offered an apprenticeship with a fight director when he completes his degree.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help towards the expenses of his final year at Guildford.

Since the Award

Toby graduated with a good degree, was signed by an agent and landed the lead role in ‘Aladdin’ in the 2010 Christmas panto. During his final year at GSA, he worked with the Fight Director on a major new Disney blockbuster John Carter of Mars due for release in 2012, and through that work has been invited to work on the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie as part of the specialist fight crew.

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I was over the moon this morning to receive your letter….I would be thrilled to accept your generous offer.

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2008 Awardee: Bede Williams

I write in appreciation of the award that you recently made available to me for my Masters in Conducting at RSAMD…. Your support comes at what I feel is a critical time.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 23
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

New Zealand-born Bede Williams came to Scotland in 2003 as an Associated Board International Scholar to study at the RSAMD. He came as a trumpeter and graduated with a first-class honours degree. While an undergraduate he won the prestigious Philip Jones Memorial Prize, competing against wind players much older than himself, and won the coveted RSAMD Governor’s recital prize.

Bede impressed from the start as a musician of prodigious talent and individuality. In addition to being an exceptional trumpeter, he demonstrated a flair for electro acoustic performance and composition and worked with numerous professional orchestras. He is a founding member of the Alba Brass Quartet.

Bede continued his studies at RSAMD in conducting, again demonstrating prodigious potential and talent as a conductor both on a technical and musical level. He has already conducted the Hebrides ensemble and the RSNO. His tutors confidently expect him to go on to a highly successful career combining his talents as a conductor, performer and composer.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will enable Bede to join the Master of Conducting course at RSAMD.

Since the Award

After delaying entry for a year onto the masters course in order to participate in the RSAMD Emergent Leaders programme, Bede graduated the following year with a Master of Music (Distinction). In 2010-11 he is conductor of the Lomond and Clyde Community Orchestra, the Penland Singers and the Bo’ness and Carriden Brass Band. He teaches trumpet at St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh and continues to play trumpet for the Alba Brass Quintet.

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I write in appreciation of the award that you recently made available to me for my Masters in Conducting at RSAMD…. Your support comes at what I feel is a critical time.

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2008 Awardee: Ben McNeill

I am writing to accept the Dewar Award which I have been awarded for courses at Beaconsfield - I am delighted to have been selected.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 26
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Edinburgh-born Ben was forced to leave school at 18 due to family circumstances. Unable to complete his further education, however, has not thwarted Ben’s ambition nor dampened his enthusiasm.

In 2005 Ben applied for a course on film-making offered by the Prince’s Trust and since then has set his sights on making a career in film production. Immediately after the course, he went on to complete an HNC in Communication with Media and later set up his own business in Film Production & Photography, thanks to a starter grant from the Prince’s Trust.

Ben has continued his association with the Prince’s Trust, producing a number of documentary projects, and representing the Trust as a Young Ambassador. In 2008 he won the Princes Trust Stills for Enterprise and Community Impact Award.

One of Ben’s long-term project is to set up an Internet Television Studio in Scotland. To enhance his skills in order to achieve this ambition, Ben applied for and was offered a place on the residential programme Summerdocs at the prestigious NFTS, Beaconsfield.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award was given to help finance Ben’s study at the NFTS.

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I am writing to accept the Dewar Award which I have been awarded for courses at Beaconsfield - I am delighted to have been selected.

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2008 Awardee: Blair Mowat

Please extend my thanks to the trustees for this Dewar Arts Award. I am honoured to be a recipient.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 21
ARTFORMS: ,
WEBSITE:https://www.blairmowat.co.uk
EMAIL:blair@blairmowat.co.uk
TWITTER: https://www.dewarawards.org/twitter.com/blairmowat

Biography

Edinburgh-born and bred Blair studied composition from an early age, first with Kenneth Dempster and later with Eddie McGuire. It has been an ambition of Blair’s to write music for film since a young age, when he took an intensive short course in film scoring with two times Emmy award winning composer, Hummie Mann.

He studied music at Durham University before going on to pursue an MA in Composition of Music for Film and TV at Bristol University. Blair studied conducting under RSNO Associate Conductor, James Lowe, and has conducted various ensembles over the years, including the Durham University Hill Orchestra.

Blair is the co-founder of the Durham Opera Ensemble and currently Composer In Residence with the experimental theatre company, Captain Theatre. June 2007 saw the world premiere of his opera Hamlet Versus Lear, which premiered at OpFest and he has recently finished a commission for Channel 4.  He has been commissioned to write the theatre score for Jay Parini’s new play Mary Postgate, which will be premiered at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help support Blair through his postgraduate studies at Bristol University.

Since the Award

Blair writes that his year at Bristol “was invaluable in allowing me to progress as a composer and taught me many specific skills in how best to synchronise my music to film.” Alongside studying composing for film, Blair conducted the student orchestra, Bristol Symphonia, set up the Bristol Film Orchestra and directed a short fiction film which was subsequently shown at a number of film festivals. Blair was awarded an MA with Distinction as well as receiving a number of other accolades, including winning the Exposures Film Festival National Composing Competition and receiving a 4Talent Nomination.

Since leaving Bristol Blair has gone on to compose for over a hundred projects for film, television and theatre. Included in those are Stephen Fry reading The Happy Prince for Sky Arts, the feature film Frequencies, episodes of BBC’s flagship science documentary Horizon, and a new ballet for The English National Ballet. As a musical arranger he has found himself working on high profile projects such Doctor Who and David’ Attenborough’s Life Story. In 2012 he was nominated for a BAFTA New Talent Award and also a Creative Scotland Award for ‘ Best New Talent in the Scottish Arts’.

For Blair’s portfolio of compositions and other work, see www.blairmowat.co.uk.

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Bradley Manning Had Secrets from Animate Projects with score from Blair Mowat

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Please extend my thanks to the trustees for this Dewar Arts Award. I am honoured to be a recipient.

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2008 Awardee: Calum Tonner

I am delighted to accept the Dewar Arts Award.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD:
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

From Monifieth, Calum is an exceptional trumpet player for his age with bags of potential and motivation. He is currently on the RSAMD Youthworks programme, designed to encourage young musicians of real talent, and his ambition is to study music and become an orchestral trumpet player.

Calum has a real natural talent on the trumpet but is being held back by his current instrument. He is already a sensitive chamber musician and a member of a very fine brass quintet. He is seen as a young musician with enormous potential to make his mark in the future.

Calum plays soprano cornet with the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland and toured Japan with them in mid 2008.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will enable Calum to buy a professional trumpet.

Since the Award

Since receiving the award, Calum believes that much of his subsequent musical development has been thanks to finding a trumpet of quality that he enjoys playing. Calum auditioned for conservatoires and was offered a place at both RSAMD and Manchester. He will start studying music at RSAMD in 2011.

Calum has enjoyed success in other areas, winning the award for Best Instrumentalist in Brass Bands, winning the concerto class at the RSAMD Junior Academy and reaching the semi-finals of the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist of the Year 2011.

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I am delighted to accept the Dewar Arts Award.

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2008 Awardee: Daljinder Singh

I would like to thank Dewar Arts Awards for this award, and I am grateful for the opportunity it will afford me to develop my work.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 28
ARTFORMS:
 
 
 

Biography

Originally from Yorkshire, Daljinder has lived in Scotland for four years where she has been developing her work as a theatre director. She began working as a trainee drama worker with the TAG Theatre Company. Since then she has worked for National Theatre of Scotland, Playwrights Studio Scotland and Ankur Productions and has staged productions at both the Tramway and Glasgow Citizens Theatre.

Her production of Martin Crimp’s ‘Fewer Emergencies’ at the Citizens Theatre was described by a critic as ‘a perfectly paced production that never misses a beat, emerging as a frighteningly vivid journey’. Recently Daljinder was awarded the prestigious, and competitive, Arches Award for Stage Directors, an award for new and exciting directors based in Scotland. The award will enable her to produce her own devised theatre piece ‘The Severed Head of Comrade Bukhari’ at The Arches Theatre, Glasgow.

Daljinder is considered to be a very talented young director with real potential to make a significant contribution to Scottish theatre.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Award will help to support Daljinder during the early development and rehearsal stages of her Arches project.

Since the Award

Daljinder writes that, “being able to participate in the Arches Award with the help of the Dewar Arts [Award] …… gave me the freedom and space to develop further artistically and explore what I wanted to say as an artist.”

Daljinder has gone on to further success since completing the project supported by a Dewar Arts Award. In 2008 she received the prestigious Jerwood Award for Directors and went on to direct a play at the Young Vic as part of this award. She is now undertaking a period of professional development at the Young Vic.

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I would like to thank Dewar Arts Awards for this award, and I am grateful for the opportunity it will afford me to develop my work.

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2008 Awardee: Daniel Rainey

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for assisting me in fulfilling my goal to become an accomplished musician.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 16
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Glasgow-born Daniel says simply that ‘music is my life and my ambition is to become an accomplished violinist’. Daniel currently leads both the West Dunbartonshire Schools and the West of Scotland Schools Symphony Orchestras and is a member of NYOS. He has set his sights on studying music at Glasgow’s, RSAMD, where he currently attends the Junior Academy.

Daniel started to learn the piano when he was six and his natural ability immediately shone through. He has continued with both piano and violin, and his playing, both private and public, gives pleasure to many people.

As Daniel progressed with his violin studies, it became apparent that he needed a professional quality instrument to realise his potential as a violinist.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award enables Daniel to buy a violin of professional standard

Since the Award

Since receiving the award, Daniel writes that he was able to buy a violin of quality which fitted his needs.  His playing improved immediately, benefiting from the virtuous circle of his being inspired to practice more on a violin of such quality.  When Daniel auditioned for conservatoires he was offered a place at RSAMD, Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal College of Music.  Daniel is now studying music at RSAMD and writes that “many of the achievements in my musical life would never have been possible without Dewar’s assistance.”

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I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for assisting me in fulfilling my goal to become an accomplished musician.

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2008 Awardee: David Gray

I am absolutely delighted to have received one of the Dewar Arts Awards…thank you very much for the very generous award.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 17
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

From Glasgow, David is a final year pupil at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh. He first played the piano by ear when he was four and started to have piano lessons when he was five. Since then, all David has wanted to be was a concert pianist and writes, “I can’t imagine doing anything else, as I live and breathe music; it is all that goes round my head all day.”

David is considered to be “one of the most outstandingly talented students” to have studied at St Mary’s Music School, and a sensitive and imaginative musician with exceptional technical facility. Some of his finest achievements are winning the Cathedral Class of the Moray Piano Competition in 2005, being awarded an ‘Excellent Plus’ by Yonty Solomon on three occasions, as part of St Mary’s annual assessment and winning the Directors’ Recital Prize at St Mary’s in 2007.

In 2005 David won the international ‘Young Theatre Organist of the Year’ competition in Los Angeles, and has since then been invited to play in concerts throughout the UK and the USA, where he has built up an enviable fan-base. He plays a wonderful version of Highland Cathedral on the theatre organ which goes down a treat in the States.

David performed the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 at the 2008 St Mary’s Music School end of term concert, which was aired on BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Classics Unwrapped’.  The presenter of the programme commented that David was a ‘name to watch out for in the future.’

David was offered places and scholarships at three of the major music conservatoires. He accepted a place at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help David through his undergraduate degree in piano performance at the RAM, London.  David’s support has been continued into his second, and now third year of study. A few of the highlights at the start of his third year include his performance debut at St John’s, Smith Square, where he shared the stage with some top musicians, and a performance of music by Frank Zappa which was subsequently recorded on an official Academy CD.

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I am absolutely delighted to have received one of the Dewar Arts Awards…thank you very much for the very generous award.

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2008 Awardee: David Smith

I would like to thank you from the very bottom of my heart for the extremely generous award that has been given me to continue my studies at the Royal College of Music.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2008
AGE AT AWARD: 18
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Fife’s David Smith started to learn the flute when he was 14 and after six month’s of playing decided that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He auditioned for and was accepted by St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh initially to study alto saxophone, but it is his progress on the flute which has been outstanding. In 2008 David won the Wind Finals of the 2008 BBC Young Musician of the Year, progressing to the grand final of that prestigious competition in May 2008.

It is not surprising that his music tutors consider him to be an outstanding talent. During his four years at St Mary’s he distinguished himself on numerous occasions, was awarded scholarships to three British music conservatoires and won a major prize at the British Flute Society Competition.

David has been a member of the NYOS and the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra and has taken part in masterclasses with Jaime Martin, Emmanuel Pahud and Eline van Esch. His career aim is to become a solo and orchestral flautist. He accepted a place at the Royal College of Music.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will assist David as he pursues his studies in flute performance at the RCM. David’s funding has been extended for a second year.

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I would like to thank you from the very bottom of my heart for the extremely generous award that has been given me to continue my studies at the Royal College of Music.

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