2007 Awardee: Declan Stark

This means a great deal, not only to Declan, but the whole family and the award is an enormous support to assist him to continue with his instruments.” (Laurie Stark, mother)

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 13
ARTFORMS: , ,
 
 
 

Biography

Thirteen year old Declan, from Airdrie, won the South Lanarkshire outstanding award for music when he was only 11.

Declan is passionate about his music and plays both the alto saxophone and piano. He participates in the swingband, senior concert band, junior concert band, saxophone quartet and ensemble in his school.

Declan comes from a musical family and his sister Lauren, also a Dewar Arts Awardee, is in the RSAMD Youthworks programme with him. Like Lauren, Declan was accepted into the programme when he was nine. He is deeply involved in the RSAMD Junior Academy, and whilst still young, shows considerable musical potential.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award has contributed towards the costs of attending the RSAMD Youthworks to ensure that Declan can continue his musical activities.

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This means a great deal, not only to Declan, but the whole family and the award is an enormous support to assist him to continue with his instruments.” (Laurie Stark, mother)

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2007 Awardee: Derek McGhie

I am delighted to accept my award and .. thank you for this very generous offer. I feel privileged to receive it.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 29
ARTFORMS:
 
 
 

Biography

Hailing from Lanarkshire, Derek McGhie has worked as an actor for ten years. He has impressed with his talent, creativity and sheer determination to get on in his chosen art form.

Derek brings great passion, commitment and integrity to any role he plays. His long-term ambition has been to pursue a career in musical theatre and so he grasped with both hands the opportunity to pursue a Masters in Performance in Musical Theatre at the RSAMD. This study will help Derek to build on what is already a promising career.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help with the tuition fees for the Masters course.

Since the Award

After a successful year at RSAMD, during which time Derek represented the Academy at the Student Sondheim Society Singer of the Year Awards in London, he went straight into his first role as the Tin Man in the Citizen’s production of The Wizard of Oz.  He writes, “I have no doubt that without my training I would not have gained this role.”

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I am delighted to accept my award and .. thank you for this very generous offer. I feel privileged to receive it.

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2007 Awardee: Donald Grant

I am over the moon to have received an award from the Dewar Arts Awards.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 26
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Inverness-born Donald Grant was brought up in Lochaber. He learned Gaelic songs from his father and regularly attended Feisean nan Gaidheal. He won numerous prizes at the National Mod and Pan-Celtic festival.
At the age of 11, Donald went to St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, and while there played as part of the folk group Ho Ro Gheallaidh.  He studied music at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester as a major scholar and student of Christopher Rowland. During his time there he won the Eleanor Warren Salon Prize, the John Webster String Prize, a Major Scholarship and a Concerto Award. He graduated with a degree and the PPRNCM with distinction, the college’s highest accolade.

Donald won further scholarships to support a 2-year Junior Fellowship also at the RNCM and a year of study at the Hochschule in Cologne, Germany. He has performed with many prestigious Chamber orchestras, including the Scottish Bach Consort and Camerata Scotland. He is also a gifted composer.

Donald is now a member of two of the most respected young chamber ensembles in the country, The Elias Quartet and Ensemble 360, and is gaining a reputation as a top-class classical musician. He is also a popular Scottish fiddler. At the Music in the Round concerts in the Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield, he regularly performs both classical and traditional Scottish, introducing classical enthusiasts to the energy and joy of traditional music. Donald is a ‘true advocate as the passion he feels for the traditional music of his homeland radiates through all that he does.’

Donald’s debut solo CD is due to be released in late 2007.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help Donald to purchase his own violin and bow.

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I am over the moon to have received an award from the Dewar Arts Awards.

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2007 Awardee: Duncan Lyall

May I thank you for the very generous award towards the purchase of a new double bass and bow.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 27
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Duncan Lyall was brought up in Dunblane from the age of 2. At an early age he demonstrated an enthusiasm for music, starting first with piano lessons at the age of 5, then with the guitar a few years later and finally to the double bass. He left Dunblane at 18 to study music at university in Glasgow.

After graduating with a good degree, Duncan started working as a professional musician, playing both double bass and bass guitar with some of Scotland’s leading names in traditional music,  including Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever, Donald Shaw and Fred Morrison, as well as a host of fellow Dewar Arts awardees.

To date, Duncan has recorded on almost 30 albums, performed all over Europe and Canada and been a member of some of the leading Scottish traditional groups such as Croft No. Five and Brolum. Duncan has gained a deserved reputation as a top-class traditional musician and is in constant demand as a performing and recording musician.

Duncan writes that he has been developing his playing ‘to incorporate the bass in a more adventurous fashion, following the melodies, harmonising, writing counter melodies or providing a more rhythmic accompaniment with the bow’, which are, he explains, techniques more often used by the cello in traditional music.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will go towards helping Duncan buy a new double bass and bow that will give him the flexibility and tone to develop his musicianship.

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May I thank you for the very generous award towards the purchase of a new double bass and bow.

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2007 Awardee: Emma Pratt

I am soooo pleased to hear that I have received the Dewar Arts Award. Thank you so much!

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 25
ARTFORMS: ,
WEBSITE:https://www.emmapratt.co.uk
 
 

Biography

Kirkcaldy-born Emma Pratt graduated with a first-class honours degree in Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College, Dundee. While at college, Emma received the RSA Sculpture Prize, the Carnegie Travelling Scholarship and, for her degree show, the Farquhar Reid Art Trust Prize. She was seen as a student who combined original talent with ambition to succeed and stood out as one of the best graduates in recent years.

Emma’s works are considered original, ambitious, surprising, provocative and witty with a very unusual approach to materials, form and imagery. Since graduating, Emma has demonstrated that she has not reached the limits of her abilities. She has exhibited work in Scotland, Italy and France.

Shortly after graduation, Emma won a travelling scholarship which allowed her to spend significant time in Florence, and later went on to an artist’s residency in France. Her work is featured in collections at the University of Dundee, the Royal Scottish Academy and in private collections in Ireland and Italy.

In 2007 Emma was an invigilator at the Scottish show “Scotland and Venice” at the prestigious Venice Biennale. She is currently illustrating a book by an Irish writer and working towards an exhibition in Prato, Italy.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help Emma complete a Master of Fine Art (Sculpture) at Edinburgh College of Art.

Since the Award

Emma writes that after graduating she spent three years exhibiting work and doing various art-related projects. “Having two years to concentrate solely on my practice in a supportive environment was exactly what my career needed. Receiving a Dewar Arts Award has enabled me to do this.”

During the MFA course, Emma showed her work in Florence, Berlin and London. She was awarded the Helen Rose Bequest for one of the best MFA 2009 degree shows at ECA. For more information on Emma’s current exhibitions and artworks see www.emmapratt.co.uk.

Emma’s work was showcased as part of our Tenth Anniversary Celebrations. Find out more here.

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I am soooo pleased to hear that I have received the Dewar Arts Award. Thank you so much!

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2007 Awardee: Euan Fulton

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 23
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Hailing from Greenock, Euan Fulton was a pupil at the Douglas Academy Music School. He went on to study music at the University of Glasgow, graduating with a good degree. Euan was a member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland for four years and progressed to become pianist with the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Euan’s interest in composition developed during his undergraduate years and his composition for organ which was part of his degree work was one of the strongest student organ works his tutors had heard. He is considered to be one of the most able and artistically-committed of students that his tutors had had in recent years and displays the spark of originality in his work which they find exciting.

Euan has shown himself to have a highly reflective sensibility, intellectual motivation and a particular drive to compose which will enable him to become a thoughtful artist. The next step in his musical career is to pursue an MA in composition which will help him to develop his technical and artistic skills.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help to finance Euan as he pursues a masters in composition at the University of Glasgow.

Since the Award

Euan gained an MA in Composition.  One of his final pieces, a Piano Duet, was premiered at the University of Glasgow ‘Sound Thought 2008’ postgraduate showcase to great acclaim.  Euan writes that, “The Masters allowed me to discover approaches to composition that will greatly aid my continuing artistic development.  I am very grateful to the Dewar Arts Awards for providing the assistance that made this possible.”

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2007 Awardee: Felipe Oliveira

I should tell you how glad and proud I am with this. Thank you (for believing) in my talent.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 29
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Brazilian baritone Felipe Oliveira’s parents told him to choose anything but music to study after graduating from high school. First he tried law and then medicine.

Felipe was 15 years old when he won a place in Brazil’s prestigious Alagoas State Choir and three years later became one of their soloists. Whilst still a medical student he decided to enter a singing competition and won the Revelation Prize. The jury, which included directors of two of the major international opera companies, told him to keep singing as he had talent.

Felipe gave up his medical studies to follow his dream of becoming an opera singer, firmly believing that one day he would be singing in the finest opera houses of the world.

He rapidly distinguished himself in competitions by winning in 2005 1st Male Grand Prize – Chamber Category in the Brazilian Voice Competition and 1st prize – Master Category in the Singing Festival of Maranhao State, amongst many others. He participated in many prestigious master-classes and performed in several opera productions.

Felipe first heard about the RSAMD in Glasgow from a Brazilian friend of Scottish parentage who had studied there. In 2006 he won a place on the MMus (Opera) course and, such is his outstanding talent, was immediately cast in two of the Academy’s opera productions, the title role in Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin’ and as Guglielmo in Mozart’s ‘Cosi fan Tutte’. Later he was selected by the distinguished German conductor, Lutz Köhler, to perform in Handel’s Messiah in 2007.

Felipe is considered to have a voice of substance, quality and power and a compelling energy and presence on stage. The finest opera houses of the world beckon.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help to support Felipe through his MMus (Opera) course at RSAMD, Glasgow.

Since the Award

Felipe’s tutor writes, “His first year in the Opera School saw him appearing already in principal rôles in Gianni Schicchi (an amiable and well-sung performance of one of Buoso Donati’s drunken relations!) and, more impressively, the title rôle in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in June. In this rôle, which he sang in all four performances, he demonstrated a natural ease for the stage….and [he] proved his ability to learn and absorb detailed suggestions from musical, vocal and language coaches.”

Felipe is now seeking auditions with some of the main European opera companies.

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I should tell you how glad and proud I am with this. Thank you (for believing) in my talent.

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2007 Awardee: Fraya Thomsen

I am hugely grateful for this substantial contribution, which will enable me to pursue my career in a highly professional manner.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 24
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Born in Sutherland, Fraya is considered to be one of the best clàrsach players of her generation. Now living in beautiful Arisaig, Fraya studied Scottish traditional music at RSAMD, Glasgow, where she graduated with an exceptional first class honours degree.

Since then, Fraya has built up a reputation as a professional musician of note, with her band, The Duplets, and also touring with Abigail Grey, a seven piece original song band.

Fraya’s 10-year-old clàrsach, which has travelled all over the country with her as well as to other continents, is giving up the ghost. As Fraya says, it ‘makes unusual and unwanted noises’ when playing. This might sound familiar to those starting to learn a new musical instrument, but disconcerting for the professional musician.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award enables Fraya to buy a new professional standard clàrsach.

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I am hugely grateful for this substantial contribution, which will enable me to pursue my career in a highly professional manner.

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2007 Awardee: Gayle Rankin

The money will be a tremendous help in funding my education in New York and will make my life so much easier .... It is a great honour and means so much to me to be recognised by the Dewar Arts Awards.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 17
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Gayle Rankin has long had an ambition to study drama at the Juilliard School in New York. This year she achieved her goal when she was one of 18 successful candidates – out of an estimated 3,500 worldwide – to be accepted this year. She was the only successful candidate from the UK and is, possibly, the first Scottish drama student ever at Juilliard.

For the last two years, Gayle, who hails from Kilmarnock, has been studying musical theatre at the Dance School of Scotland, Knightswood, where she was noticed as a truly talented performer excelling in acting, singing and dancing. Recently she was winner of an international fellowship award to study in Australia. She performed in the staging of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, with Siobhan Redmond in the title role.

Gayle has been offered a scholarship-funded place on the 4-year drama degree course at Juilliard School.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help towards the considerable expenses to study in New York.

Since the Award

After four years of Dewar Arts Award support, Gayle graduated from Juilliard with a degree in acting. She writes of that experience “Juilliard’s rigorous, four-year training program has changed my life and my career forever and has unquestionably been the most significant experience of my personal and professional life thus far….I am very excited to be at the beginning of a career here in the States and have found really great representation here.” As for us, we hope to see Gayle on the stage back in Scotland in the not-too-distant future.

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The money will be a tremendous help in funding my education in New York and will make my life so much easier .... It is a great honour and means so much to me to be recognised by the Dewar Arts Awards.

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2007 Awardee: Gordon Bragg

I am most grateful for this opportunity to increase my learning opportunities.

YEAR OF AWARD: 2007
AGE AT AWARD: 22
ARTFORMS: ,
 
 
 

Biography

Hailing from Dunblane, Gordon Bragg started out as a highly-talented violinist, developing in later years to lead NYOS, Camerata Scotland and NYOS Futures. He went on to study violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Gordon is considered to be one of the most exciting young musicians to represent Scotland in recent years.

After graduating, Gordon went on to join the prestigious postgraduate conducting programme at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

During his first year at RNCM, Gordon conducted the College’s symphony and string orchestras, the junior vocal ensemble and the wind ensemble in a diverse range of works and to an enthusiastic reception. He has a deep commitment to the music of today and has a great admiration for the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra of Finland, which promotes works by contemporary as well as classical composers.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will help Gordon purchase a series of Barenreiter scores of classic works by some of Europe’s greatest composers, an essential tool for a student conductor.

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I am most grateful for this opportunity to increase my learning opportunities.

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