BVOF | RIAM John Pollard Bursary
The largest bursary of its kind in Ireland, each year the BVOF | RIAM John Pollard Bursary will select one vocal studies student and one instrumental student to each receive €24,000 over two years. This new award will assist each winner to complete their two-year Master in Music Performance programme at RIAM.
The award is open to vocal and instrumental students worldwide who apply to study on the Masters in Music Performance programme at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, with a particular focus on applications from tenor/countertenors for the vocal award. Recipients will be chosen through their RIAM audition to receive the award, which will be provided as €12,000 in Year 1 and €12,000 in Year 2.
Soprano Abigail LaDuke and pianist Ella Nagy were the first recipients of the Bursary. Tenors Seán Testor and Rory Lynch are the 2023/25 recipients of the Bursary and are currently in the second year of their Masters Programme. They have now been joined by 2024/26 recipients, double bass player Savannah Hilterbrandt and violaist Remi Ludick, who are currently in the first year of their Masters Programme.
“We are thrilled to partner with BVOF and the John Pollard Foundation to offer this astonishingly generous bursary to some truly talented and remarkable musicians. The award opens the doors of the RIAM to students across the globe, who may not otherwise have the means to study at Ireland’s oldest conservatoire, right in the heart of Dublin.” – Deborah Kelleher, RIAM Director
More information on how to apply and audition requirements can be found on riam.ie/apply. Applications for MMus will be automatically considered for this award. There is no separate application process.
Savannah Hilterbrandt: Savannah is a Double Bass player with a BMPerf from the University of North Texas. As a BVOF John Pollard Bursary recipient, she is continuing her studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
She has collaborated with many ensembles such as the Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival in Virginia, where she was a fellowship student in their LEAD cooperative program. Her former teachers include Jeff Bradetich, Gudrun Raschen, and Dee Moses. She was named a Semi- Finalist of the 2024 Fulbright International Research Program.
Along with the role of a student, she has recently worked as a chamber music coach at the University of North Texas’s 2023 Double Bass camp, where she worked closely with bassists of all ages. Savannah keeps herself busy with her portfolio career through teaching, performing in chamber music ensembles, and playing in orchestras. She is interested in the exploration of music that is undiscovered, and expanding the limits of music making.
Remi Ludick: Remi completed their BMus (2021) and BMus Hons (2022) cum laude at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Remi is currently pursuing their Post Graduate Master's Degree in Viola Performance at The Royal Irish Academy of Music, where they have received generous support from The Black Valley Opera Festival as a John Pollard bursary recipient. Remi has had the opportunity of performing in numerous ensembles and orchestras, including the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Town Baroque Orchestra, Stellenbosch Camerata, and the South African National Youth Orchestra. Remi has enjoyed annual travels for participation in music festivals such as the Festival Périgord Noir Baroque Academy in France, Confidencen Baroque Academy in Sweden, and the Irish Youth Baroque Orchestra. Remi has a keen interest in Indigenous African Music, where they were a member of the Stellenbosch University Conquering Spirits Ensemble, which performed indigenous African repertoire.
Rory Lynch: A Dublin native and tenor, Rory is a member of Chamber Choir Ireland and the choir of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. He is undertaking a Masters in vocal performance at RIAM with Dr Imelda Drumm and was awarded the BVOF|RIAM John Pollard Bursary to support his studies there. He has sung as a soloist and in choirs all his life - growing up in Irish choral institutions such as the Irish Youth Choir, New Dublin Voices, the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral Dublin and the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin. He gained his Bachelor of Music Education in 2020 from RIAM and Trinity College Dublin. His stage debut was at Wexford Festival Opera 2023 as Danilo in Camille Erlanger’s L’Aube Rouge and he will return to the festival in 2024 as a member of their young artist programme, the Wexford Factory. In 2024, he will also perform his first principal role as Mr Owen for RIAM Opera’s production of Dominic Argento’s Postcard from Morocco. Rory has performed Oratorio of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Saint-Saens in concert with Culwick Choral Society, Dublin Goethe Choir, Dublin County Choir and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. As a professional choral singer, Rory also works regularly with leading Irish vocal ensembles, including Chamber Choir Ireland, Resurgam and Sestina Music.
Seán Tester: A tenor from Drogheda, Co. Louth, Seán studied Drama, Dance and Singing at the Drogheda School of Performing Arts and has a strong background in choral singing as a dedicated member of St. Peter's Male Voice Choir, Drogheda. In recent years, Seán's vocal interest turned to opera and classical singing which led to his completion of the Recital Artist Diploma at RIAM. In the world of opera, Seán has been engaged by the Irish National Opera Chorus for INO’s productions of Rossini’s ‘Guillaume Tell’, Gounod’s ‘Faust’ and Puccini’s ‘La Bohème’. Seán has also made his tenor soloist debut in Handel’s ‘Messiah’. Seán immensely enjoyed his time as a participant in "Celebrating the Voice" with international star mezzo-sopranos Tara Erraught and Angela Brower. 2023 saw Seán as a recipient of the BVOF|RIAM John Pollard Bursary; seeing him continue his studies with principal voice teacher Owen Gilhooly-Miles and coach Dearbhla Collins on the Masters in Music Performance (Vocal Studies) at RIAM. More recently, Seán made his tenor soloist debut in Orff's ‘Carmina Burana’, Beethoven's ‘Choral Fantasia’, D'Astorga's ‘Stabat Mater’ and Haydn's ‘Die sieben letzten Worte des Erlösers am Kreuz’. Seán made his international role debut in Switzerland where he performed the role of “Rodolphe” in a production of Rossini’s ‘Guillaume Tell’ at Nouvel Opèra Fribourg/Neue Oper Freiburg. Seán made his North American singing debut representing RIAM performing at the 33rd Ireland Funds Emerald Isle Ball in The Breakers Palm Beach, Florida. Seán looks forward to more engagements with Irish National Opera later in the 23/24 season.
Abigail LaDuke: A native of Minnesota in the United States, soprano Abigail earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Concordia College under Dr. Holly Janz and Stephen Sulich and currently studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music under Kathleen Tynan and Dr. Andrew Synnott. She made her Irish debut singing the role of Monique in the RIAM/IADT’s production of Elizabeth Maconchy’s The Sofa and recently performed the RIAM/IADT production of Dominic Argento’s Postcard from Morocco in March 2024 as the Lady with a Hand Mirror. She is looking forward to making her debut in the United Kingdom with a Historical Performance Recital with RIAM at Hatchlands Park in May 2024. She is immensely grateful to have received the 2022 BVOF|RIAM John Pollard Bursary and the 2023 Dublin ChamberFest Prize alongside pianist Ella Nagy.
Ella Nagy: Ella is the first instrumental recipient of the BVOF|RIAM John Pollard Bursary and winner of various competitions in Ireland. Some of these include RIAM’s Maura Dowdall Concerto Competition in 2019, RIAM’s ChamberFest Dublin Prize in 2023 and, and the runner-up in the 2023 Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year competition. Ella has performed in most of Ireland's concert venues, most notably, in the National Concert Hall where she received a standing ovation for her performance of Chopin's Second Piano Concerto with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. Internationally, she has given recitals in the UK, Portugal, Hungary and in New York and Florida. Ella’s performances have been broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM, Dublin South FM and BBC Radio Ulster. Ella has recently recorded works by Irish composer Jonathan Nangle to feature on his latest album Surface Patterns, an album which is available on all major streaming platforms.