News

17 year old Victor Lim from Korea, who has been a pupil at Wells Cathedral School for the last four years, has reached the piano final of the 2012 BBC Young Musician Competition.  Of the original102 pianists who entered the competition only 5 now remain and the final will be held in Cardiff in March. The programme will be shown on BBC television in May.

Victor is the fifth of John Byrne’s pupils to reach the final stages of this competition. Otis Beasley(2004), David Secchi(2006) and Frederic Bager(2010) were all piano finalists and Julien Cheriyan won the piano section and was a concerto finalist in 1996.

Two of John Byrne’s pupils have achieved notable successes in their applications to British conservatoires.

Lee Jae Phang from Malaysia has been awarded scholarships to the Royal College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Victor Lim from Korea has won scholarships to the Royal College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music.

Both are pupils at Wells Cathedral School.

Of the 425 pianists who entered this year’s EPTA competition four prizewinners were selected for a London recital.

Three of these were pupils of John Byrne – Daniel Evans from Wells Cathedral School and Haijie Wang and David Secchi from the Royal College of Music.

Haijie Wang from China has been won the RCM’s highest piano award – the Chappell Gold Medal. Before coming to study with John Byrne at Royal College Haijie was educated in Beijing and Singapore. Earlier this year he was a prize winner in the EPTA and Intercollegiate Beethoven competitions.

With a performance of the Waldstein sonata David Secchi has won the Royal College of Music’s Beethoven competition. One of the college’s most prestigious awards the prize attracted a large international entry. David has studied with John Byrne for several years at both Wells Cathedral School and the RCM. He was previously a winner of the junior intercollegiate Beethoven competition, a piano finalist for the BBC Young Musician Competition, a winner of the WCS concerto competition and a major prizewinner in several EPTA competitions.

Frederic Bager from Switzerland has won first prize and the gold medal in the 2009 Moray International Piano Competition held recently in Scotland. Freddie studied with John Byrne at Wells Cathedral School before winning a scholarship to continue his studies with him at the Royal College of Music.

Victor Lim has been awarded second place in the 2011 Moray International Piano Competition which was held in Scotland in November.

Pianist Dennis Saw from Malaysia has made his concerto debut with the WCS Chamber Orchestra in Mozart’s concerto in D minor K 466. The concert, conducted by Matthew Souter, took place in Wells Cathedral and drew critical praise for “the musicality, elegance and acute sense of style of the piano playing”.
Dennis is now in his fifth year of study with John Byrne at Wells Cathedral School and earlier this year won the two major awards at Bath’s Mid-Somerset Festival – the concerto class and the Premier Award.

The 2012 BBC young Musician competition is underway and of the 102 original piano entrants just 30 have been chosen to progress to the category finals to be held at the Royal College of Music in December.

Five of John Byrne’s pupils are included- Daniel Evans, Nurry Lee, Victor Lim, Brian Low and Lee Jae Phang.

All are pupils at Wells Cathedral School.

Pianist Lee Jae Phang is one of two winners of the Wells Cathedral School Concerto competition. Lee Jae will perform Liszt’s first concerto with the school’s symphony orchestra in Wells Cathedral next July. The conductor will be Christopher Adey.