Guildhall School of Music & Drama

17 January 2012

Gold Medal finalists announced

One violinist and two pianists will contend the Guildhall School’s prestigious prize

The Guildhall School of Music & Drama has announced the finalists for the Gold Medal, the School’s most prestigious award for singers and instrumentalists who compete in alternate years for this coveted prize.

2012 is for instrumentalists and the three finalists are violinist Jonathan Chan and pianists Ashley Fripp and Ben Schoeman.

On Wednesday 2 May each finalist will perform a concerto with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Judd before a Barbican Hall audience. The evening then closes with the adjudication by the panel and announcement of the winner. The prize includes a cash award donated by The Worshipful Company of Musicians and the runners-up glass trophy is donated by The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers.

The distinguished panel of judges includes: Jonathan Vaughan, Director of Music at the Guildhall School; Edward Gardner, ENO’s acclaimed Music Director; Richard Morrison, Chief Culture Critic at the Times; James Judd, conductor of the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra for the Gold Medal and joint Chief Executive of Askonas Holt Martin Campbell-White. 

The Gold Medal award was founded and endowed by Sir H Dixon Kimber in 1915. Previous winners include Jacqueline du Pré (1960), Tasmin Little (1986) and Bryn Terfel (1989). The 2007 winner Katherine Broderick also won the first prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Award 2007 and recently made her ENO debut as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni); 2008 winner Sasha Grynyuk also won the inaugural Guildhall Wigmore Recital Prize which saw him perform a solo recital at the Wigmore Hall in 2009. 2009’s winner Gary Griffiths has performed solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall and Birmingham Symphony Hall, and made his professional debut with Welsh National Opera in summer 2011. In 2010 the prize was awarded to pianist Martyna Jatkauskaite, who has appeared as a soloist with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuania Chamber Orchestra, Kaunas Symphony Orchestra and the London Festival Orchestra. 2011’s winner Natalya Romaniw was recently offered a place on the New York Metropolitan Opera's Lindeman Young Artist Programme. 

Reserved tickets: £15, £10 (£5 concessions) available from the Barbican Box Office 020 7638 8891 (www.barbican.org.uk) from 15 February.