Awardees - Dewar Awards

Euan Fulton

Euan was a pupil at the Douglas Academy Music School. He went on to study music at the University of Glasgow. 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.

Felipe Oliveira

Whilst still a medical student Felipe 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.

Fraya Thomsen

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

Gayle Rankin

Gayle Rankin has long had an ambition to study drama at the Juilliard School. She achieved her goal when she was one of 18 successful candidates – out of an estimated 3,500 worldwide – to be accepted.

Gordon Bragg

From Dunblane, Gordon Bragg began as a highly-talented violinist, in later years leading NYOS, Camerata Scotland and NYOS Futures. He went on to study violin at the Guildhall in London. After graduating, he joined the postgraduate conducting programme at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Graham Mackenzie

Graham, from Inverness, is considered to be one of Scotland’s finest up-and-coming musicians who will become a leading player of his generation. Already he is an accomplished and exciting performer full of style and grace.

Hannah Venet

Edinburgh-born Hannah Venet developed an interest in dance when she was four years old. Initially she began as a pupil at the Theatre School, Edinburgh and joined the Scottish Ballet Junior Associates in 1998.

Hayley Scanlan

Whilst just three-quarters of the way through her degree in textile design at Duncan of Jordanstone, Hayley was offered the chance in a professional life-time of an internship with top fashion designer Jeremy Scott in Los Angeles.

James McArdle

Glasgow-born James is the youngest Scot to have been accepted by RADA in almost ten years. The list of graduates from RADA read like a ‘Who’s Who’ in British acting.

Jamie Keen

A former pupil of the Dance School of Scotland in Knightswood, Irvine’s Jamie Keen has his eyes firmly set on London’s West End theatres. Jamie is now studying Dance and Theatre Performance at Kent’s Bird College.

Jenna Reid

Shetland-born Jenna Reid began playing the fiddle when she was nine. Together with her brother, sister and pianist mother she formed the family band Filska. The band has recorded three albums and toured the world.

Jenni Fagan

Jenni has been writing creatively since she was in primary school where she won competitions for short stories and poems. Since then, her writing achievements are impressive.

Jenny Randall

Jenny started training in film making at Dundee University, where she specialised in film. She was considered to be one of the most talented students on the programme where she achieved top grades in all her assessments.

Joanne Timmins

Joanne Timmins is considered to be a most original, committed, disciplined and intelligent young theatre director, and a name to watch.

Jodie Oliver

Jodie’s interest has always been in directing musical theatre, although this is not an easy path for a female to follow. She directed many productions in Edinburgh before moving to London to try to establish a career for herself and build a name for herself.

John Burlington

John’s early dance training was at some of the leading dance schools for young people in Scotland. In 1994 he performed in a production of ‘Oliver!’ at the London Palladium. In 1999 he won the Young Dancer of the Year Competition in North Lanarkshire

Jonathan Boyd

Jonathan has been designing jewellery to wear since he was sixteen years old. He gained entry to Glasgow School of Art to pursue his passion for jewellery design, where he graduated with a first-class honours degree. He won the Richard Hubbard Memorial Prize while at the GSA.

Katie McIvor

In her sixth year at Peebles High when she won the Award, Katie started playing the harp in 2002. She performs regularly with the Peebles Youth Orchestra.

Kayleigh Sharp

Kayleigh has won prizes in local music festivals and is current holder of the Inverclyde Music Festival’s Musician’s Union Shield and Trophy as well as being 2007 winner of the Greenock Rotary Club’s ‘Young Musician of the Year’.

Keith Gray

While studying at Central St Martin’s Keith worked on a number of design collections which were subsequently shown in London, Milan and Paris Fashion weeks.

Kevin Young

Paisley-born Kevin Young’s story is pure ‘Billy Elliott’. His first dance teacher well remembers him as one of a group of boys who would hang about outside her dance classes annoying the girls as they entered and left the classes.

Laura Helyer

Laura is poised to become an important voice in British poetry as her work becomes more widely published. Already she has shown to have unusual talent combined with intelligence and an ability to write with a language of precision and rare sensitivity.

Lauren Stark

Twelve-year-old Lauren, from Airdrie, won the Kathleen McCartney music award for the community in 2007. She and her brother Declan, also a Dewar Arts Awardee, come from a musical family, inspired by her father who plays five instruments.

Louise McMonagle

At the age of 11, Louise won a place at the Douglas Academy Music School. She went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, graduating with a first-class honours and receiving the Dip RAM for outstanding final recital.

Lynsey McRitchie

From Stornoway in the Western Isles, Lynsey has been involved in music making in her local community for years.

Mairead McManus

Born and brought up in Scotland, Mairéad is a winner of many All-Britain and All-Ireland traditional music titles. She began traditional music classes by learning the penny whistle.

Maria Kozlova

Russian-born Maria Kozlova came to Glasgow to study opera at RSAMD, after graduating with distinction in choral conducting from the St Petersburg Conservatoire.

Marie O’Connor

From Nitshill in Glasgow, Marie O’Connor graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1999. She won a place on the highly competitive masters course in Mixed Media Textiles at the Royal College of Art in London.

Martin Murphy

At an early age, Martin showed his natural musical talent and rapidly developed this talent at school to become one of the best students his music teacher had encountered in 17 years of teaching.

Martin O’Connor

Martin says that he is “inspired by gender politics in today’s society and am aware of the press and media’s power to manipulate our viewpoints. I recognise there is a massive crisis affecting men, especially young men, and this informed my work.”

Maureen McMullan

Maureen studied voice and piano from the age of 12. She went on to study music at Strathclyde University, gaining a first class degree in Applied Music, winning the ‘Sir Alexander Stone Prize for Excellence in Performance’ for her final recital.

Mia Valenti

Mia’s first appearance on the stage was at the age of eight when she was given the role of the young Juliet in the premiere of Robert North’s Romeo and Juliet by Scottish Ballet.

Michael Osborne

Dumfries-born Michael graduated with distinction from Queen Margaret University College in 2005 with a degree in stage management and theatre production. Since graduation he has been working freelance in Scotland’s theatre and film industry.

Michael Segaud

Hailing from Perth, Michael gained a music scholarship to Strathallan School in Perthshire and from that time onwards has devoted himself to becoming a professional musician.

Miriam-Rose McFadyen

Miriam-Rose is currently pursuing a masters in music performance at RSAMD. She has played with all of the Academy’s orchestras and was co-leader of the Symphony Orchestra.

Naomi Berrill

Currently studying cello performance in Italy, Naomi excels in many musical genres and is equally talented at classical, jazz and folk.

Nuala Kennedy

Nuala is an accomplished and versatile musician. Her flute playing is beautifully lyrical and steeped in the tradition of both Irish and Scottish traditional music

Oliver Smith

It’s not that unusual for a twelve-year-old to be a whizz at computers. But what is remarkable about Oliver Smith is that he entered Digital Eden, a competition for adults as part of the 2006 Inverness Film Festival, and was one of six winners.

Raim Koo

Korean-born Raim Koo moved to Scotland when he was 4 years old. He started having cello lessons whilst still at primary school and won a place at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh in 2000.

Robert Torrance

From the lovely Fife town of St. Andrews, Robert’s greatest ambition is to lead a successful career as a professional solo violinist. Those who have heard Robert have no difficulty in believing that he will achieve his ambition.

Ronald Nairn

Ronald was accepted into the National Youth Choir of Scotland when he was 16 and was immediately cast as a soloist. With the choir he toured Sweden and performed in Chicago.

Ruth Davidson

Ruth started to play the violin at the age of seven and since then has gone on to win a number of prestigious music awards, including first place in the 2006 Bell Baxter Centenary Music Competition.

Ryan Young

Ryan started playing the fiddle at the age of nine and from that moment decided that he wanted to be a professional musician. He has been attending the RSAMD (Youthworks) programme, for which he was awarded a scholarship.

Sadah Webster

Born in Brisbane of British parents, Sadah came back to Glasgow to pursue a Masters in oboe performance at the RSAMD.

Samantha Blaney

Wishaw-born Samantha Blaney began studying musical theatre at Motherwell College before going on to win a place on the RSAMD’s MA in Performance in Musical Theatre.

Samuel Rutherford

Born in Inverness, Samuel was inspired to take up the accordion after hearing the ceilidh band Skerryvore performing on Coll. He asked if he could have a go at playing their accordion and was hooked.

Selina Law

Selina gained a first-class honours degree specialising in woven textiles and is currently designer in residence at Duncan of Jordanstone College.

Shaun Kelly

Perth-born Shaun Kelly auditioned for the Dance School of Scotland in Knightswood when he was in primary seven.

Steven Blake

Steven started learning the Highland bagpipes at a young age, winning many solo competitions, including the Stirlingshire Mod and the Lothian and Borders solo contest, culminating in becoming the Scottish Schools’ Piobaireachd Champion three years’ running.

Stewart Webster

Like many aspiring young Scottish musicians, Fife-born Stewart started his musical training in the junior department of the RSAMD.