Last year’s winner of an annual classical music competition has won a UCD Ad Astra Performing Arts Scholarship, allowing him to pursue both music and academic.
Stan O’Beirne, an 18-year-old pianist from Terenure, Dublin, said winning the Frank Maher Classical Music Award in 2021 was a huge help in securing the scholarship.
“It means that I can pursue an academic degree, hopefully it will be engineering, yet be supported in my piano studies at the highest level. I can continue entering competitions, performing in concerts and festivals and taking part in other events. It gives me so many options careerwise,” he said.
“I am hoping also to continue to branch out into other areas of music, like composing, teaching, and recording or performing as part of a group. However, classical solo piano will always be number one for me.”
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The Top Security/Frank Maher Classical Music Awards were created in 2001 by Emmet O’Rafferty, chairman of the Top Security Group, to honour the memory of his late teacher, Fr Frank Maher. They went nationwide in 2012 and have just opened for applications for 2022.
“The awards are now into their eleventh year of national competition, and we never cease to be delighted at the high calibre of teenage talent that it attracts,” Mr O’Rafferty said.
“We’re proud to be able to support them at a key time in their lives and we’re very much looking forward to meeting this year’s crop of talented finalists.”
The Awards are open to sixth year post-primary students of string, woodwind, brass and piano. The €5,000 top prize will be used by the winner to attend a recognised place of tuition, a course of study in Ireland or abroad or on a purchase necessary for the development of their talent. The remaining finalists will each receive a €300 bursary.
