For the Future of Early Music...
The Friends of St Cecilia’s Hall annually invite applications for Student Bursaries to assist with costs of travel, research, conference attendance and professional preparation in connection with early music and early music instrument technology.
The range of research and activity is fascinating, covering specialist early lute repertoire; evolution of bel canto style; baroque ensemble performance practice; and the development of the flute in Scotland with particular reference to iconography. Such awards are made each year from a dedicated Bursary Fund which is sustained partly by generous donations and partly by fund-raising activities like small domestic concerts for Friends and guests; the sale of CDs, postcards and refreshments; and our Edinburgh Festival Fringe concert series.
Bursary Awards - 2018
Friends of St Cecilia’s bursary awards 2018 are pleased to announce that we received a good range of applications for the 2018 bursary awards, and the committee (made up of Andrew Mackie, Arnold Myers, Eleanor Smith, John Kitchen and Willie Hendry) agreed that all of the applications this year were more than worthy of awards.
Carey Andrews has just finished her third year of undergraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh, and asked for a bursary to fund her attendance at an opera masterclass with renowned tenor Alan Oke, where she was studying excerpts from The Marriage of Figaro.
Caroline Leseman-Elliot will be graduating this summer with a first class degree in music from the University of Edinburgh, and going on to study for a masters degree in musicology at Royal Holloway in the autumn. Her bursary project relates to her studies in music written for the Church by female composers, and will involve traveling to archives across Belgium and France to study manuscripts.
Eric Thomas is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam where he specialised in performance on the lute and theorbo. As well as being a talented performer,
Eric is now studying for a PhD at the University of Southampton where his focus is Italian lute music. His bursary application was to support the formation of a quartet of musicians to explore the two contrasting musical styles prevalent in early Venice and how they influenced each other.
Daniel Wheeldon is studying for a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, on keyed guitars of late 18th-century London and 19th-century Germany. He is a talented instrument maker and uses these skills in his research as well as working with the curatorial staff at St Cecilia’s Hall. Daniel’s bursary application was to help cover the costs of materials for a replica instrument he is making as part of his PhD research.
The Kellie Consort founded in 2015, is made up of outstandingly talented young singers and instrumentalists, with a connection to Scotland, who wish to develop their skills in baroque performance practice to the highest level. In 2018 they have drawn together two projects based on the cantatas of J.S. Bach, with mentorship from some of the most renowned experts in the performance of this repertoire. The bursary committee agreed to donate towards the cost of the second of these two projects, which will run between 24 and 31 July, specifically to cover the cost of venue hire in Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Details of concerts relating directly or indirectly to bursary awards will be made available on the website when provided by the awardees. Following the report to the main committee meeting, it was agreed that the members of the bursary committee will review the terms and conditions of
the awards, and make any necessary updates or changes
before the 2019 adverts are sent out. Eleanor Smith
Sample of previous Bursary Awards
- £650 to Elizabeth Ford for the acquisition of a modern copy of a Renaissance flute to enhance her understanding of the development of the early flute and its music in Scotland. Her post-doctoral studies will give major focus to the iconography of the ceilings at Crathes Castle.
- £700 to Tom Wilkinson to help set up the pre-professional baroque group, the Kellie Consort.
- £650 to Brianna Robertson- Kirkland for attendance at a bel canto summer school in Dublin, run by Emma Kirkby.
- £700 to Eric Thomas, lute player, to allow him to attend the Urbino Early Music summer school for intensive lute instruction.
If you would like to set up a standing order to give regularly to this Fund, just ask the Treasurer to send you an appropriate form. It is useful if you tell us whether you are a UK tax-payer and are happy to assign Gift Aid on your donation, to allow us to reclaim tax you have paid.
Bursary holders report on how they have used their awards in our newsletter, Soundboard and Friends website. They keep in close touch with the Friends long after the year of their award. You will be able to track their progress and see the effect of your gift in their development.
With many thanks in advance for your support,
Elly Smith
Chairman, The Friends of St Cecilia’s Hall and Museum.
* To donate to the Bursary Fund, contact:
Andrew Mackie
The Treasurer,
The Friends of St Cecilia’s Hall and Museum,
c/o Dr Jenny Nex, Centre for Research Collections,
6th Floor, Main University Library,
George Square,
Edinburgh, EH8 9LG.
Bursary applications
Use below buttons for bursary application information and also pre-application advice can be obtained by e-mailing : - friends@stceciliasfriends.org.uk
Use below buttons for bursary application information and also pre-application advice can be obtained by e-mailing : - friends@stceciliasfriends.org.uk
Friends of St Cecilia’s Bursary Awards 2017
Members of the bursary committee were delighted to receive applications from an international group of students with a wide span of specialist interests. Awards have been made to:
Federico Filippi De Bord, a third year undergraduate from the Conservatorio Paganini, Genova, Italy, who has studied on an Erasmus programme in Edinburgh, in order to cover expenses in obtaining digitised copies of important source manuscripts relating to the development of the mandolin and its repertoire through the 17th and 18th centuries;
Motoko Fukuda, a harpsichord student on a postgraduate Master’s programme in the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany, towards expenses for research visits to study early keyboard instruments in the Moretus Museum in Antwerp and in St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh;
Eric Thomas, a PhD candidate studying lute at the University of Southampton, towards expenses for participation in workshops at the Leipzig Improvisation Festival for Early Music.
We look forward to reading accounts of their bursary experiences in future editions of Soundboard.
Linguists sought for St Cecilia’s tours
Ruthanne Baxter, recently appointed Museum Services Manager, makes this appeal:
We are aiming to have set dates in the year when we could offer Spotlight Tours of St Cecilia’s (30 minutes duration) in a variety of languages for visitors.
We would like to be able to cover French, Spanish, Italian, German and Mandarin – but would be very happy to add to this list.
We are now seeking volunteers for this activity. The Language Tour Guides would get “into the swing” via a training package that would consist of a short summary of notes on the building (collection by e-mail / post), followed by a one-hour combined tour / question and answer session at St Cecilia’s from our curators, and finally a short spell of “buddy tours” alongside curators until the language guides feel comfortable leading tours alone.
We are reaching out via several channels in search of such volunteers, but would be particularly pleased if any Friends who are fluent in a language would be interested in participating.
If you would like to offer this kind of help, please e-mail Ruthanne.Baxter@ ed.ac.uk or write to:
Ruthanne Baxter Museum Services Manager St Cecilia’s Hall Niddry Street/Cowgate Edinburgh EH1 1NQ
Members of the bursary committee were delighted to receive applications from an international group of students with a wide span of specialist interests. Awards have been made to:
Federico Filippi De Bord, a third year undergraduate from the Conservatorio Paganini, Genova, Italy, who has studied on an Erasmus programme in Edinburgh, in order to cover expenses in obtaining digitised copies of important source manuscripts relating to the development of the mandolin and its repertoire through the 17th and 18th centuries;
Motoko Fukuda, a harpsichord student on a postgraduate Master’s programme in the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany, towards expenses for research visits to study early keyboard instruments in the Moretus Museum in Antwerp and in St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh;
Eric Thomas, a PhD candidate studying lute at the University of Southampton, towards expenses for participation in workshops at the Leipzig Improvisation Festival for Early Music.
We look forward to reading accounts of their bursary experiences in future editions of Soundboard.
Linguists sought for St Cecilia’s tours
Ruthanne Baxter, recently appointed Museum Services Manager, makes this appeal:
We are aiming to have set dates in the year when we could offer Spotlight Tours of St Cecilia’s (30 minutes duration) in a variety of languages for visitors.
We would like to be able to cover French, Spanish, Italian, German and Mandarin – but would be very happy to add to this list.
We are now seeking volunteers for this activity. The Language Tour Guides would get “into the swing” via a training package that would consist of a short summary of notes on the building (collection by e-mail / post), followed by a one-hour combined tour / question and answer session at St Cecilia’s from our curators, and finally a short spell of “buddy tours” alongside curators until the language guides feel comfortable leading tours alone.
We are reaching out via several channels in search of such volunteers, but would be particularly pleased if any Friends who are fluent in a language would be interested in participating.
If you would like to offer this kind of help, please e-mail Ruthanne.Baxter@ ed.ac.uk or write to:
Ruthanne Baxter Museum Services Manager St Cecilia’s Hall Niddry Street/Cowgate Edinburgh EH1 1NQ
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Photos shown are of five previous bursary award holders: Elizabeth Ford, Eric Thomas, David Gerrard , David Dewhirst and Annemarie Klein
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Elizabeth Ford
Eric Thomas