Biography

Katherine studied oboe as a boarder at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh.  She was described as an exceptional pupil and a particularly talented musician.  She performed as a soloist and as part of a chamber ensemble, picking up a number of prizes and awards along the way.  A standout opportunity was performing as a finalist of the Edinburgh Competition Festival’s Concerto Class at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh.

Katherine achieved a distinction in her grade 8 oboe, and also gained a highly sought after place in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.  She achieves a great deal of satisfaction from performing and this drives her to pursue a career as a professional musician.

As a next step on this path, Katherine was offered a place to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London.  This provided an excellent opportunity to further develop her skills,

How the Award Helped

Biography

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

Sadah is considered to be a very talented musician and oboist. He is constantly in demand as a freelance oboist with professional orchestras in Scotland and has worked as a musician for some of the major London musicals. He has worked with the RSNO, the Scottish Concert Orchestra, the Hebrides Ensemble, Scottish Opera and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as with orchestras as far afield as Australia, Hungary and Portugal.

Sadah is part of the wind quintet Amici Winds and is getting together a new chamber music ensemble based in Glasgow which will focus on playing new music and to finding a new audience in younger generations.

Sadah is an exciting and talented oboist in increasing demand as both a soloist and orchestral player. Although able to play the cor anglais (tenor oboe), Sadah did not own his own instrument.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award will enable Sadah to buy a professional cor anglais.

Since the Award

Biography

Michael O’Donnell is, in the opinion of his RCM tutor, one of the finest oboists of his generation who brings a generosity of spirit in all he does. While at the RCM, Michael won the Knights of the Round Table Prize and the Chamber Music Prize.

He has been principal oboe and cor anglais of the National Youth Orchestras of both Scotland and Great Britain and principal oboe of Camerata Scotland. At the end of his third year at RCM, he was awarded the highest mark of any student in his year for his end of year recital. He graduated in 2006 with the top mark in the woodwind faculty and with a first-class honours degree.

Michael was brought up in Scone, Perthshire. His musical ambition is to develop a career in chamber music and orchestral playing. He gained a scholarship to study on the RCM Integrated Masters course (MMus).

Michael is very interested in the Suzuki teaching method and, in addition to his playing, aims to develop the application to oboe teaching.

How the Award Helped

Michael met Donald Dewar in 1997 and then later during the campaign for the devolution of the Scottish Parliament. If he hadn’t gone on to study music, he says he would have gone into politics.

The Dewar Arts Award will help finance Michael through his MMus course.

Since the Award

Michael graduated from the RCM in 2008 with an MMus, Distinction. In late 2010 he was offered the post of 2nd oboe and cor anglais in the Northern Sinfonia and also the post of 2nd oboe in the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Michael writes that he still can’t believe he’s playing in some of the major concert halls of the world. “Growing up in a small village in Scotland, I had no idea my career would allow me to see so much of the world so quickly.”