News

Three of John’s pupils, Edward Creed, Brian Low and Peter Xie have been awarded a total of thirteen scholarships between them at this year’s entrance auditions for UK conservatoires.

The awards were given by the Royal College of Music,  Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Trinity Labanand the Birmingham Conservatoire.

Royal College of Music student Ning Hui See has won first prize in the Citta di Padova International Competition. Ning also reached the finals of the concerto  section of the competition which will be held later in the year.

The 2016 BBC Young Musician Competition is under way and two of John’s pupils have reached the piano semi-final stage. Pictured are Peter Xie and Cyrus Cheng. Of the 120 pianists who entered the competition just 30 now remain.

Malaysian pianist Brian Low was one of only three pianists to reach the later stages of this year’s Bromsgrove International Young Musician Competition. This was a significant achievement for the seventeen year old pianist as he was the youngest competitor in the event with the other two pianists being postgraduate students at the London conservatoires. As such Brian was presented with a special discretionary award by the jury.

Hong Kong pianist Cyrus Cheng has been awarded an Ash Scholarship by Imperial College, University of London. Cyrus will start a mathematics degree at Imperial in the autumn and the Ash Scholarship will enable him to simultaneously take piano tuition at the Royal College of Music. Only three such awards are made each year. Last December Cyrus was also awarded a major scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music.

Peter Xie recently completed a recital tour of his native China performing repertoire by Bach, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Rachmaninov and Bartok. Included in his itinerary was a recital in his home city of Guangzhou. Peter  is in his final year at Wells Cathedral School and recently won a major scholarship to the Royal College of Music.

Lulwa Al  Shamlam, a pupil at Wells Cathedral School,  has been awarded second place in the 2015 American Protege International Piano Competition. As part of her prize Lulwa will be presented in a concert at Carnegie Hall in March 2016.

Brian Low, from Malaysia, was one of the winners of this year’s concerto competition at Wells Cathedral School. Brian will now get the opportunity to play Mendelssohn’s G minor concerto with the WCS Symphony Orchestra in Wells Cathedral.

The American Cultural Centre in Kuwait was the setting for a recital by Lulwa Al Shamlan, a year nine pianist at Wells Cathedral School. Lulwa played Schubert and Dohnanyi to a large and appreciative audience.

 

Hong Kong pianist Cyrus Cheng, who has been studying with John at Wells Cathedral School for the last four years, recently made his concerto debut in Bristol with the Brunel Sinfonia conducted by Mark Gateshill. The capacity audience gave Cyrus a prolonged standing ovation at the conclusion of his performance of Rachmaninov’s second concerto.