Music scholarships

Since 1970 the English-Speaking Union has been offering scholarships to enable talented young musicians to attend summer schools and festivals of international renown in North America, Europe and the UK. Over 250 musicians have benefited from the programme, among them Nigel Kennedy, Steven Isserlis, Robert Cohen and Tasmin Little. Not only do the ESU Music Scholarships allow exceptional individuals to develop their talents and further their training. They also provide a common ground on which people of different communities can meet, learn and understand. The young people who have derived benefit from this valuable experience are now making a significant contribution to the musical profession, both as performers and as teachers. Applications for Music Scholarships open in September for courses taking place the following year. Auditions are held at the end of November. Each year, the portfolio of scholarships offered by the ESU changes. Recent scholarships have included:

• ESU Menuhin Banff Scholarship
  Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada
• ESU Norman-Butler Tanglewood Scholarship
  Tanglewood Music Centre, Massachusetts, USA
• ESU Yale Charlotte Bonham-Carter Scholarship
  Yale Summer School of Music, Norfolk, Connecticut, USA
• ESU Scholarship to the Academie Musique Internationale de Musique Maurice Ravel
  St Jean de Luz, France
• ESU Scholarship to the International Musicians Seminar
  Prussia Cove, Cornwall

The scholarships cover tuition, board and lodging but not travel. Applicants should be current students or graduates of a UK conservatoire or university Faculty of Music; citizens of the United Kingdom or a country in which the English-Speaking Union operates.

ESU Music Scholars (from left) Simon Wallfisch, Gemma Rosefield, Warren Mailley-Smith and Charles Watt

The deadline has now passed for applications to the 2010 Music Scholarships.

Applications for the 2011 scholarships will re-open in September when all information on the scholarships available and the application form will be posted on the website.

If you would like to register your interest in the scholarship then please contact Alison Wakefield on aliw@esu.org and we will record your request for now, and email you information as soon as it becomes available.