Violinist Marlon Barrios Araya wins Junior Guildhall Lutine Prize 2021

Guildhall School of Music & Drama is delighted to announce that violinist Marlon Barrios Araya has been awarded First Prize at the final of Junior Guildhall’s most prestigious award: The Lutine Prize. French horn player Daniel Hibbert was awarded Second Place. 

The competition took place on Friday 25 June in Milton Court Concert Hall and was broadcast on Guildhall School’s website on Saturday 3 July. The performance is available to view online until Saturday 10 July.

Concertmaster of Junior Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and Junior Guildhall String Ensemble, Barrios Araya performed a winning recital of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No 5 (first movement), Ysaÿe’s Violin Sonata No 2 (first movement), and Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen, accompanied by pianist Louisa Lam.

Marlon Barrios Araya says: "Winning the Lutine Prize has been my most successful achievement so far in my career. It has been an honour to study at Junior Guildhall, surrounded by promising young musicians and brilliant members of staff who inspire me every day to forge my artistry and musicality. I am eternally grateful to this institution for taking me as one of their students and offering me the opportunity to explore classical music in much greater depth."

Rosie Whitfield, Head of Junior Guildhall, says: “An astonishing evening celebrating the wealth and breadth of talent at Junior Guildhall. Despite the difficulties we’ve all faced since March 2020, our six finalists rose to the challenge, displaying breath-taking musical mastery. What a fantastic tribute to them, their parents and all those at Junior Guildhall who contributed to making the evening such a fantastic success!”

The adjudicators this year were composer, conductor and violinist Shirley J Thompson, Chief Examiner and an Executive Director of ABRSM John Holmes, and Professor of Piano at Guildhall School of Music & Drama Lucy Parham.

Shirley J Thompson says: “It was thrilling to judge the Final of this year's Lutine Prize with my esteemed colleagues. The level of performance in all the instrumental categories was outstanding, so we were delighted to be unanimous in our choice of the prizewinner. Many congratulations to all the finalists and to the Lutine Prize organisers for presenting a spectacular event.”

John Holmes says: “It was wonderful to be part of an audience, listening to live performance once again – an experience which was all the more special, knowing the difficulties and restrictions facing music teaching and learning during past months. These performances were a fabulous testament to the hard work, dedication and talent of these young musicians, as well as those guiding and supporting them – thank you all!”

Lucy Parham says: “It was an honour to be on the panel for the prestigious Lutine Prize and inspirational to listen to six young musicians play so exceptionally well. To have live music return to us is something to be treasured and the whole evening was a very special one for me.”

The Lutine Prize is Junior Guildhall’s equivalent of the senior school’s annual Gold Medal competition. Six students were selected from the preliminary round to perform in the final in which they presented a 20-minute solo recital. The winner of the First Prize is given the opportunity to perform a concerto with one of the Junior Guildhall ensembles in addition to a cash award.

The other finalists were:

Oliver Simpson cello
Arwen Withey-Harrison harp
Lily Hesper-Dugdale clarinet
Daniel Hibbert horn (second place)
Lilly Vadaneaux piano

The Lutine Prize was inaugurated in 1982 and Barrios Araya joins a long line of winners, many of whom have enjoyed professional music careers, including Thomas Adès, Tom Poster and Annabel Thwaite.

Marlon was born in San José, Costa Rica and began his violin studies at the age of five. From 2013 to 2016, Marlon was a member of the National Children Symphony Orchestra and the National Intermediate Young Symphony Orchestra, occupying the concertmaster position in both ensembles. In 2014, he won a position at the Suzuki Youth Orchestra of the Americas and played an Honor Masterclass with James Maurer at the Suzuki Conference of the Americas in Minneapolis, United States. Marlon made his first ever solo debut at age 12, with the Costa Rica National Symphony Orchestra as a prize for being in the top six winners in the National Young Soloist Competition in 2015.

In May 2016, he obtained a full music scholarship from Whitgift School in London. That year, as part of the Whitgift Symphony Orchestra, he toured to Venice, Italy. In 2017, during the Whitgift Music Tour to Bulgaria, he performed as a soloist, with the collaboration of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra at the Bulgaria National Hall and represented the school in the Györ International Music Competition in Hungary, where he won the first prize in his category. In 2017, Marlon was admitted to Junior Guildhall, under the tutelage of Ivo Stankov. In 2018, he was chosen to open the Plovdiv International Chamber Music Festival with members of the Whitgift Chamber ensemble

The Lutine Prize final is part of Guildhall School’s online Summer season, all of which is free to view on the School’s website.