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Student updates
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Our students continue to achieve acclaim across all faculties. Read on for a selection of their achievements.
Performances and presentations
RCM Junior Department trumpet student Lucas Gebrehiwet (main picture) performed alongside Bashy in the first number of this year’s MOBO Awards, which were livestreamed in February.
Violinist Shing Hong Chow played the cameo youth violin part in the European premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope, with the London Chamber Ensemble at the Red Violin festival run by violin professor Madeleine Mitchell. Shing Hong also performed the Red Violin Caprices by John Corigliano ahead of the Red Violin film screenings.
Oboist Hannah Seymour co-hosted the EMPOWER: Female Musical Icons event at King’s Place on 21 March, which featured composition professor Errollyn Wallen as a panellist.
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Awards and accolades
Double bassist Levi Andreassen won joint First Prize in the Fifth Haslemere String Competition. As part of his prize, Levi will perform a concerto with the London Mozart Players on 16 May at the Haslemere Festival.
Hugo Brady was awarded Best Undergraduate Vocal Performance in the Brooks Van Der Pump English Song Competition 2025. The Best Student Pianist Performance went to Viviana Țaga-Radu, with special mentions for Josephine Shaw and Thomas Luke. The duos through to the final round are Daniel Barrett and Jorn Quirijnen, Hugo Brady and Firoze Madon, Carys Davies and Irena Radić, Benedict Parker and Ayane Nakajima, Tia Radix-Callixte and Ethan Heidel, Alexander Semple and Kaishun Ypsilantis.
Pianist Amiri Harewood has been listed as one of Classic FM’s 30 under 30.
Trombonist Pau Hernández Santamaria and tuba player Archie McVicar both won Yamaha European Music Foundation Scholarships.
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Pianist Magdalene Ho was awarded the highly prestigious 13th International German Piano Award 2024, which involves nomination by an international jury and final rounds in Germany.
In the Lies Askonas Competition preliminary round, the Titanic Memoriam Prize for pianists went to Thomas Luke. The six singers through to the final are: Zheng Jiang, Charlotte Jane Kennedy, Jiaxi Lin, Astrid Montén, Benedict Parker and Ariana Ricci.
Pianist Firoze Madon won the Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Young Soloist Competition, earning him the John Crawshaw Award and the opportunity of performing a concerto with the orchestra.
Soprano Henna Mun won the intercollegiate Clonter Opera Prize, following on from Sam Hird’s success in 2024.
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Trombonist Meggie Murphy won the Philip Jones Brass Prize in the Royal Over-Seas League Woodwind and Brass final.
PhD candidate Ugne Peistaraite received a conference award for her poster presentation at the ninth International Congress on Emotional Intelligence at the Iberoamericana University in Mexico City.
Soprano Madeleine Perring won the Royal Over-Seas League Singers final. Madeleine also won the Bertha Taylor Stach & Ted Moss Prize at the RCM Lieder Competition, where the Alasdair Graham Pianist Prize was awarded to Matthew Clemmet.
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Mariamna Sherling won First Prize in the Chappell Medal piano competition 2025, which took place on 13 February. The Second Prize, Hopkinson Gold Medal and Cyril Smith Prize, and the Esther Fisher Prize for Best Undergraduate Performance went to Markus Sadler, while Thomas Luke was awarded the Third Prize, Hopkinson Silver Medal and Peter Wallfisch Prize. Thomas has also been awarded the Prix Monti at the Piano Campus International Piano Competition in France, earning him the opportunity of giving a recital at the Piano Campus Festival in France in 2026, and won the accompanist prize at the Dorothy Richardson English Song Prize UK, where his recital partner, soprano Josephine Shaw, won third prize.
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Soprano Eden Shifroni is the recipient of the Alastair Jackson International Opera Award 2025, enabling her to begin her studies at the Royal College of Music in September 2025.
Doctoral students Gergely Tóth-Vajna and Zsombor Tóth-Vajna were awarded the Ferenc Liszt Prize, Hungary’s highest state decoration for music.
Pianist Zvjezdan Vojvodic won second prize and the Chopin Prize at the Roma International Piano Competition 2024.
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Send your updates for the Summer 2025 print edition of Upbeat to news@rcm.ac.uk by Friday 9 May 2025.
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