Biography

To have a life in music has been Alan’s dream since he was eight years old. A graduate of St Mary’s Music School, Alan started his musical career by learning the violin and was a member of the National Children’s Orchestra of Scotland. He represented the City of Edinburgh by playing solo violin in the UK Holocaust Memorial concert.

Then he discovered jazz. He switched to playing the piano, set up a jazz quartet (Take 4) at school, with whom he has performed throughout Scotland and helped to launch a BBC youth initiative. Take 4received the School’s Director of Music’s discretionary Award for Musical Achievement.
Up until then, Alan was largely self-taught on the jazz piano. He then had the benefit of tuition from a number of leading pianists/composers who helped him develop and refine his technique and composing. A self-confessed obsessive jazz pianist by this time, Alan took every opportunity to play – with Tommy Smith’s Youth Jazz Orchestra, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and his own jazz quintet. He also was a regular performer in Edinburgh’s Jazz Bar, which led to great opportunities to play gigs with the best jazz musicians around.

Being offered a scholarship to study jazz piano at Berklee was a dream come true. By this time, Alan was being noticed as a jazz pianist of huge potential and, unsurprisingly, he won the BBC Scotland Young Jazz Musician of the Year at the same time as being accepted by Berklee.

On arrival at Berklee Alan made history by being awarded the highest ‘rating’ of any Scot entering Berklee for more than 20 years.

As well as allowing him to be in some of Berklee’s top student ensembles, this also gave him the opportunity to study with Berklee’s premier piano teacher, JoAnne Brackeen. He writes,”I had been hoping that it might be possible to study with her later on in my studies if things went really well, so I’m over the moon to have it happen from the start.”

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Awards is supporting Alan’s studies at Berklee.

Since the Award

Alan spent four remarkable years at Berklee, getting straight ‘A’s’ for his studies, winning the 2009 Alex Ulanowski Award for outstanding composition, taking over the piano chair of the Berklee Rainbow All Stars ensemble and culminating in receiving the 2010-11 Billboard Award.

He graduated Summa Cum Laude in the summer of 2011. In his last semester, he represented Berklee with his quartet at the Monterey Next Generation Festival. He went on to the Rochester International Jazz Festival to perform with his trio as part of the ‘Made in the UK’ series. He also had time to play with a couple of jazz legends; in one of Hal Crook’s ensembles at Berklee and with Jerry Bergonzi on one of his latest projects.

Alan writes of his whole Berklee experience that “I’ve been able to get a taste of what it’s like to play with some of the best musicians out there….and thereby learn some important lessons that no classroom can give you.”

July 2015 – Alan and his trio released the acclaimed debut album ‘Traveler’s Tales’, inspired by Alan’s travels as a musician, the landscape of Scotland and his love of Japanese animation.

Biography

Although Perth’s Alasdair Beatson is the first classical musician in his family, our guess is that with an aunt who was a member of the 70’s iconic pop group ‘New Seekers’, musical star quality is in his genes.

Alasdair is a stellar pianist. He began his musical tuition at the Aberdeen Music School, where he won a scholarship. At the age of 18, he went to the Royal College of Music as a Foundation Scholar and four years’ later continued his studies at Indiana University with the famous pianist Menahem Pressler. Along the way, he has won a clutch of prestigious prizes, including the Making Music Award for Young Artist and 2nd prize in the China Shanghai International Piano Competition and has performed with some of the world’s top musicians and ensembles.

Alasdair is one of the two most talented students his music tutor at RCM has encountered, and his playing is considered to be inspirational. He writes of Alasdair, “I have never heard him give a performance which was not memorable and arresting, casting new light on the repertoire.” Working at the highest professional level, Alasdair needs permanent access to a piano that will allow him to explore and develop his playing. He is expected to become one of the great pianists on the international stage.

For more information about Alasdair, see www.alasdairbeatson.com.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award made a substantial contribution towards the purchase of a piano.

Since the Award

Biography

Christina studied first at Chetham’s School of Music and then went on to read music at Trinity College, Cambridge.  After graduation, the Royal College of Music awarded her a Leverhulme Postgraduate Studentship to study with Yonty Solomon.  Christina also worked with Vanessa Latarche at the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2005 Christina was invited to perform recitals at both the Wigmore Hall, London as part of the Monday Platform Series for “the very best emerging artists” and The Purcell Room, London as part of the South Bank Centre’s Fresh Young Musician’s platform for “today’s most talented new musicians”. Both recitals received critical acclaim.

In the same year, other engagements included two live BBC Radio 3 broadcasts, a performance at Bellapais International Festival in Cyprus, and recitals in the new Perth concert hall and at St George’s Bristol.

At the Purcell Room recital, Christina, a native of Broughty Ferry, performed work by Fanny Mendelssohn, Das Jahr, and was thrilled to discover later that Fanny’s great-great-great-granddaughter was in the audience. Christina has won a host of prizes on a national and international level, including being a prizewinner at the Marsala International Piano Competition and winning the RAM’s Postgraduate Piano Recital Prize.

For further information see www.christinalawrie.co.uk.

How the Award Helped

Biography

‘Spectacular’, ‘exquisite’ and ‘breathtaking’ are words used to describe Christopher’s prodigious talent as a pianist.  Born in Morayshire, of Scottish/Northumbrian descent, he has been hailed as one of Scotland’s most promising young musical talents.

Christopher started his musical education aged seven and entered St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh six years later.  Christopher’s former teacher at the school is in no doubt that he is an outstanding musician and pianist with unlimited potential.  Amongst his many achievements in piano performance are as Gold Medallist in the Chopin Society of Edinburgh’s competition class at the 2001 Perform Festival, and outright winner of the Moray Piano Competition in the same year, in which he was, and still is, the youngest ever winner.  At the St Mary’s Music School Director’s Recital Prize final, he was outright winner for his performance of Kenneth Leightons’ Five Studies for Piano.

More recently, Christopher performed at the Malcolm Arnold festival in Northampton where he gave the World Premier of Arnold’s Flamenco for solo piano.

Christopher was offered scholarships to all the major conservatoires, but chose the Royal College of Music, London where he is a Foundation Scholar of the piano, studying with the renowned pianist, Andrew Ball.

In his first year, Christopher won the Frankck Merrick Prize for the Best Performance of a Work by a Significant British Composer, adjudicated by Rolf Hind, at the College’s 20th Century Piano Competition.

How the Award Helped

Christopher received a Dewar Arts Award to support his studies at the Royal College of Music in London for four years.

Since the Award

After four intensive years of study at the Royal College of Music, Christopher graduated in 2009 with an outstanding first class honours. Included in the repertoire of his Final Recital was Elliott Carter’s Piano Sonata which Christopher now refers to as his ‘trademark’ piece. He will remain at the College for a further year to complete a Master of Music degree.

Christopher writes, “Thank you for all your generous support over the last few years.  It has not gone unappreciated as, without your help, what I have done and the great things I have achieved would have been impossible.”

Biography

Hailing from Connel, a small village near Oban, Andrew is a prodigious musical talent. He started learning piano at the age of 8 with Geoffrey Heald-Smith. He studied harp and composition with Savourna Stevenson, whom she describes as one of her most talented students.

Andrew is an energetic and charismatic young performer with an impressive CV including BBC radio and TV performances, Celtic Connections Festival and the winner of many music prizes.  He has an interest in a broad range of musical genres, which embraces both his commitment to his Scottish musical roots and a passion for the challenge of the piano concert repertoire.

He won the Mòd Piano Competition five years in a row and was then politely asked not to enter again in order to give others a chance! He has represented Scotland at the Pan Celtic Festival in Ireland, winning First Prizes in the Group and New Song Competition and Second Prize in the International Harp Competition. Also a talented clàrsach player, Andrew performed at the prestigious World Harp Congress in 2002.

More recent competition successes includes reaching the final of the RNCM Concerto Competition, the Manager’s Discretionary Award for outstanding performance at the Jacques Samuels Intercollegiate Piano Competition, and an award by the John Ireland Society of his complete solo piano works.  In 2006 Andrew won the RNCM Ravel Competition, giving him the chance to perform Ravel’s G Major Piano Concerto as soloist with the RNCM Symphony Orchestra.

In 2005, he received a full scholarship to attend the Gold Country Piano Institute’s ‘Mastercourse in Interpretation’ in California. Subsequently, he was selected to perform in several concerts around California.  2006 performances include Mozart’s Concerto in A Major K488 with the Nottingham Youth Orchestra and Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the RNCM Concert Orchestra.

Andrew is studying piano at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where he is considered to be an intelligent and talented pianist with enormous potential.  He plans to continue at RNCM on the Master’s programme for which he has been awarded a Major Entrance Scholarship.

How the Award Helped

Andrew received a Daughter of Dewar Award towards the purchase of a grand piano.

Since the Award

Since buying a grand piano, Andrew graduated from RNCM with first-class honours, the Alfred Class Pianoforte Scholarship for the highest Final Recital mark and the Hilda Anderson Den Award for highest academic marks. He was also the first student to perform two concertos with the college orchestra in the same year. Not to mention being the first student to perform in a kilt.  Andrew attributes a lot of this success to being able to practise on a professional-quality piano.

Andrew is now pursuing an MMus at RNCM. He has also won a Fulbright Scholarship to continue his studies at Eastman College, Rochester, towards a DMA.