TY SPRING Project featured in The Echo.
Huge congratulations to Helen Rutledge in 6th year for the incredible achievement of being one of the 6 finalists in the 2020 Frank Maher Classical Music Awards.
Helen studies violin with Colette O’Brien in the CIT Cork School of Music. She has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland since 2016 and is also a member of the CSM Symphony Orchestra. She has won numerous awards in Feis Ceoil, Feis Maitiu and CSM competitions as well as being awarded Most Distinguished Student in Intermediate Cycle Strings. Helen is also an accomplished pianist.
The following is an extract from a press release about the event:
“Violinist Julieanne Forrest (17) a sixth-year student at St. Peter’s College, Dunboyne, Co. Meath, won the €5,000 top prize at the Top Security Frank Maher Classical Music Awards for 2020, Ireland’s largest such competition for secondary schools. Cork had one finalist this year, violinist Helen Rutledge (18) from St. Angela’s College in Cork.
Helen, accompanied by pianist Ellen Jansson, performed ‘Melodie, Op.42’ by Piotr Ilitch Tchaikovsky and ‘Danse Espagnole’ by Manuel de Falla.
The Awards were created in 2001 by Top Security chairman Emmet O’Rafferty to honour the memory of his late teacher, Fr Frank Maher, who taught music at Castleknock College in Dublin. Six finalists competed for the top prize of €5,000 to develop their musical career. Due to Covid-19, there was no audience this year and instead the young musicians performed individually in front of the judges in socially distanced surroundings on the evening of Friday 2 October. The performances were filmed and will be available post-event for family and friends to view afterwards.
The Awards’ aim is to showcase outstanding young musical talent in Irish schools and are open to sixth year post-primary students of strings, woodwind, brass and piano. The €5,000 top prize must be used to attend a recognised place of tuition, a course of study in Ireland or abroad or on a purchase necessary for the development of their talent.
Past winners have gone on to attend some of the world’s most prominent music colleges, which includes the Juilliard School, Shenandoah University of Virginia, Conservatoire Nationale Superieur de Musique et de Danse Paris, Kronberg Academy in Germany, the Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, Texas, and the Royal Academy of Music in London, to name a few. Helen and the finalists each received a €300 bursary.
You can hear Helen playing her “Ode to Joy” Tribute here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XT2hpobOU4
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