The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, in partnership with BBC Northern Ireland, is seeking applications for the 2018 Northern Ireland Young Musicians’ Platform Award.

The biennial awards aim to support five exceptional young Northern Ireland musicians by providing funding awards, worth £5,000 each, to three classical musicians, one jazz musician and one traditional musician.

The award enables them to spend time learning from a musician, mentor, teacher or composer either in Northern Ireland or abroad.

In addition to this training, recipients receive two professional radio broadcast engagements with BBC Northern Ireland, including one with the Ulster Orchestra. They also receive mentoring and advice from BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle presenters John Toal, Lynette Fay and Linley Hamilton.

Ciaran Scullion, Head of Music at the Arts Council, comments that the award is ‘a tremendous opportunity for our outstanding young musicians to develop their musical skills, learn from the best in their genre and receive professional experience of playing with a professional orchestra.’ He adds:

All of the previous recipients have gone on to have successful, professional careers and I’ve every confidence that their experience received through this award acted as an exceptional platform to shaping their development.

Previous winners of the award include pianist Michael McHale (read our review of his most recent album here) and mezzo-soprano Sinéad O’Kelly, who has just won the National Concert Hall’s Bernadette Greevy Bursary. The most recent winners were pianist Seán Morgan-Rooney, baritone Aaron O’Hare, harpist Richard Allen and singer and guitarist Niall Hanna.

Applications for 2018 will be assessed by a specialist panel, and shortlisted artists will be invited to audition at the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast, in early November, where they will perform three contrasting pieces.

Applications for the Northern Ireland Young Musicians’ Platform Awards are open from Thursday 6 September and will close on Thursday 25 October.

For more, visit  www.artscouncil-ni.org/funding/scheme/young-musicians-platform-award.