On Monday 18 October the Canterbury Festival 2021 Young Musicians’ Bursary Competition saw performances from both junior and senior applicants. As always, the standard of the musicianship was extremely high with a wide-range of pieces performed for our panel of judges which included Susan Wanless (Chair of Judges and Former Director of Music, University of Kent), and Alastair Hume (Founding Member of the King’s Singers).

After much deliberation this year’s senior Young Musician Bursary Competition winner was announced as 15 year-old pianist Eliza Ruffle, who presented outstanding performances of Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue A minor and Rachmaninov’s Etudes Tableaux op 39 no 6. A huge congratulations to Eliza and to our other participants who all demonstrated amazing technical talent and passion for their artform. Supported by the Canterbury Festival Foundation, this year’s winner will receive a £2,000 bursary to help develop their talent, take advantage of training opportunities or fund musical equipment. They will also become the Canterbury Festival Ambassador for the arts for 2021-2022.

From our junior musicians violinist Alana Griffiths Ennew was announced as the competition’s ‘one to watch’. Alana performed Manuel de Falla’s Danse Espagnole from ‘La Vida Breve’ (Arranged for violin by Fritz Kreisler).

We would like to thank all of the amazing musicians who took part and look forward to next year’s Competition.

You can now watch performances by all junior and senior participants here.