Biography

Hailing from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Christos began playing trumpet aged 10.  He developed a keen interest in jazz from an early age and performed with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland, as well as numerous regional and community big bands in and around Glasgow.

Christos has taken part in the Young Scottish Jazz Competition twice, and in 2012 was runner up in the Under 17s category. In 2014 he gained a place to study on the BMus (Hons) in Jazz at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

Since Christos enjoys a variety of music alongside jazz, he aspires to become a session musician and work on a range of projects.

How the Award Helped

Biography

Dundee-born Iain has been a member of the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland since the age of 11, the same year he won the British Open Junior Solo title. Since then, he has been principal cornet (leader) for several brass bands, including the prestigious Yorkshire Building Society Band, based in Huddersfield.

Iain has had many notable successes in competitions, including winning best brass player four times at the Perth Festival from 2000-2004 and the Premier Class winner of Best Overall Soloist in 2003. In 2006 he beat several well-known cornet players when he won Best Principal Cornet for his performance with Sellers International Band at the “Brass in Concert Championships” in Gateshead. He led the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland on their tour of Japan with great distinction.

Iain is considered by many to be one of the finest young cornet players in Scotland of his generation and to be one of the three best cornetists to have studied at the University of Salford. Iain graduated from Salford with a first class honours, specialising in brass performance. He continues his studies at postgraduate level to develop his trumpet playing, in order to become a first-class trumpet player alongside the cornet.

How the Award Helped

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.

Biography

Linsey MacDonald, from Lundin Links, Fife, started playing trumpet when she was 11. She quickly demonstrated musical potential above her peers. She was first a pupil at the RSAMD junior school and then progressed to study for a degree in music also at RSAMD.

From an early age she loved playing jazz and during high school played with the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra. She joined the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra when it was founded in 2002, playing lead trumpet. She joined the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra the same year, playing third and fourth trumpet. With her own jazz octet The Hemato she performed at the Glasgow Jazz Festival in 2006.

Tommy Smith considers Linsey to be an amazing young musician, with great potential. He is impressed both by her fantastic improvisational skills as a performer and her maturity as a composer.

There are very few top line female jazz trumpeters, and even fewer lead female trumpeters in the UK. Linsey has both the technique and artistic potential to become one of the very finest lead trumpeters in the UK.

Linsey was offered a scholarship to study jazz trumpet at the renowned ‘mecca’ of jazz, Berklee College of Music, Boston, where most of the world’s jazz greats have studies. But without additional support she would not have been able to take up the offer.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award has provided funding to enable Linsey to study for a 2-year Diploma in jazz trumpet at Berklee.

Since the Award

Linsey’s first year at Berklee was very exciting. She played in all three of the Berklee Big Bands, with a 10-piece all-women ensemble consisting of music students from all over the world, with the Berklee Rainbow Band in front of a crowd of 10,000 and with The Berklee Baseball Samurai at the opening of the baseball play-offs, which is a great honour in America.

With the Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra, which focuses on contemporary repertoire, Linsey performed with Maria Shneider, considered to be one of the most influential female jazz composers/performers on the New York scene today.

Biography

A graduate of St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, David, from northern Scotland, is a trumpeter of enormous potential. Born in Munster, Germany, he was first introduced to music through the Kirkintilloch Silver Brass Band at the age of 9. He decided that he wanted to become a world-class trumpeter.

Throughout his early career, David has been a member of a variety of orchestras including the Edinburgh Symphony Baroque Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, the Scottish School’s Orchestra, the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra and Eastman Wind Orchestra. He is also a keen chamber musician.

David has won a number of music prizes including, in 2005, the Scottish Concerto competition playing the Shostakovich trumpet and piano concerto with fellow Dewar Arts Awardee, Chris Guild.

David gained an undergraduate place at a number of music colleges in the UK and in the US and decided to accept Eastman School of Music, Rochester in order to study with the renowned trumpeter, James Thompson.  He has also attended masterclasses and had lessons with Robert Early, Angela Whelan, Patrick Addinall and Mark Gould.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award is funding David to study at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester for four years.

Since the Award

David successfully graduated with a degree in trumpet performance.  During his studies at Eastman, David discovered a love and aptitude for conducting.  He continues to live in the States where he is pursuing a career in conducting.

Biography

When he started playing trumpet at the age of 10, Brian aspired to become a top orchestral player. Even as an undergraduate, his considerable talents were recognised by many of the major orchestras, both within and outside Scotland, for whom he has played regularly.

Brian plays regularly with the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Royal Scottish National, Scottish Ballet, Scottish Opera, Ulster and RTE Concert Orchestras.  He is former principal trumpet with both Camerata Scotland and the National Musicians Symphony Orchestra, London and recently performed as guest principal trumpet with the Orchestra Utopica in Lisbon, Portugal.

Brian, from Yoker, is a keen chamber musician and has performed with the Hebrides Ensemble, the brass ensembles of the BBC SSO and Scottish Opera as well as with his award-winning brass quintet, Thistle Brass, with whom he has performed in venues as far apart as the Great Wall of China to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles.  For further information see www.thistlebrass.com.

In addition to performing solo recitals on modern instruments, Brian has a keen interest in early music and recently performed solo trumpet inBach’s B Minor Mass on baroque trumpet with the Dunedin Consort.

Currently studying for a Masters at RSAMD, Brian has a strong interest in modern music and premiered a new piece for solo trumpet by James MacMillan in 2005, to great acclaim. It is considered that, as his career progresses, he will become a vehicle for and a great exponent of the best of contemporary Scottish music. He is a recipient of the British Reserve Prize for Early Music, the Peter Morrison Prize for Brass and was recently awarded the prestigious Governors Recital Prize for Brass at the RSAMD.  He has received awards from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Musician’s Benevolent Fund Education Awards.

How the Award Helped

The Dewar Arts Award enabled Brian to buy a pair of rotary trumpets, as well as support a series of lessons with some of the top European trumpeters of his choice.