John Pollard Award for Strings 2023

The John Pollard Competition for Young String Players identifies, financially assists and develops the potential of exceptional young string players. Six Junior RIAM students competed for the John Pollard Award of €2,000 for an outstanding violinist or violist and the Stephen Vernon Award of €2,000 for an outstanding cellist or double bass player. Our adjudicators on the night were RIAM's Head of Strings, Sarah Sew & Christian Elliot, who had the difficult task of selecting the winners.

Kian Lee was announced as the winner of the John Pollard Award for an outstanding violinist with his performances of Bach's Violin Sonata in G Major, Chopin's Nocturne No. 20 in C sharp minor & finishing his performance with Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor Op.64. Also performing on the evening was Cormac Mac Canna (violin), Iona Wu (violin). 

Elizabeth Troup was announced as the winner of the Stephen Vernon Award for an outstanding cellist or double bass player. Elizabeth performed Debussy's Cello Sonata in D minor and finished with a performance of Davidov's At the fountain Op. 20, No. 2. Also competing were Anna Varga (cello) and Kerryn Wang (cello). 

Well done to all and a huge thank you to Stephen Vernon, Sarah Sew, Christian Elliot and Carla Vedres.