2007

Alan Benzie Music, Piano

In 2007 Alan won the BBC Scotland Young Jazz Musician of the Year Award and was accepted into Berklee College of Music, Boston. He made history by being given the highest 'rating' of any Scot entering Berklee over the past 20 years. Already he is considered to have a future in jazz at the very highest level.

Jen Hadfield Literature, Poetry

Shetland-based Jen Hadfield has worked as a professional poet since 2002. Her first collection, Almanacs, won first prize in the Society of Authors’ Eric Gregory Awards in 2003. Since her Dewar Award she has gone on to win the T S Eliot Prize for Poetry and the Edwin Morgan International Poetry Prize.

Katri Walker Visual Arts, Film

Visual artist Katri works in a variety of media, including photography, drawing and film and video. Her films are short, direct and, employing tragi-comedy as a tool, she frequently deals with aspects of interpersonal relationships.

Paul Wright Film, Directing

Paul studied at the National Film and Television School with the support of the Dewar Awards, and has since gone on to win numerous awards, including Scottish BAFTAs. He is considered to be one of the finest filmmakers of his generation.

Michael Turner Music, Violin

Glasgow-born Michael started playing the fiddle at the age of four and quickly demonstrated his natural talent and flair for music. At the time of winning the award, Michael was the current under-12 All-Britain Slow Air Champion.

Alana Florence Crafts, Textile Design

Aberdeen-based Alana describes herself as “a quirky colourful individual who flourished in the quiet country.”

Alasdair Beatson Music, Piano

Alasdair is one of the two most talented students his music tutor at RCM has encountered, and his playing is considered to be inspirational.

Alasdair Henderson Music, Pipes

Winner of the 2007 Danny Kyle award at Celtic Connections and a member of piping's 'boy band' TNT, Alasdair is one of a handful of hugely talented pipers in Scotland.

Alexa Beattie Music, Viola

Edinburgh-born Alexa Beattie grew up in North Berwick and was a pupil at St Mary’s Music School. She graduated from the School with the Isobel Dunlop Prize for Service and the Leonard Friedman Chamber Music Prize, signalling a bright future for herself as a violist.

Alfredo Caponetto Music, Composition

Alfredo has developed an exciting synthesis of his highly-approachable tonal style and a more experimental music. His work shows the emergence of a true and distinctive compositional talent.

Andrew Cummings Dance

Andrew began to study ballet at the age of eight and quickly showed a natural physical aptitude. He joined the Scottish Ballet Junior Associates programme and later auditioned successfully for the Dance School of Scotland, where he studied for four years.

Ani Batikian Music, Violin

Since her arrival at the RSAMD, Ani has underlined her reputation as a musician of exceptional talent by winning the Hilda Bailey Prize, the Governor’s Prize for Chamber Music and the Mabel Glover String Quartet Prize. Armenian-born Ani has made Scotland her home.

Anna Mary Lynch Music, Bassoon

Scottish student Anna Mary Lynch is currently studying bassoon at Glasgow’s RSAMD. Already Anna Mary plays regularly in RSAMD symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles and for NYOS, and has the ambition to become an orchestra player.

Calum MacCrimmon Music, Composition, Pipes

Canada-born Calum comes from a family of legendary pipers and composers from the Isle of Skye. In the fullness of time, Calum will become the 11th hereditary piper to the MacLeods of Dunvegan.

Calum MacLeod Music, Harp

Calum has enjoyed consistent success in the harp competitions of the Edinburgh Competition Music Festival, and in 2007 was awarded the prestigious Harp Medal for a 15-minute recital, the highest award one can win at the Festival.

Caroline Sharp Music, Violin

Caroline Sharp has lived in the North-East of Scotland all her life. She is already recognised as one of Scotland’s foremost young violinists.

Caroline Walker Visual Arts

Since graduating from art college, Caroline has exhibited widely across Scotland, the UK and abroad. In 2006 her work was selected for the highly prestigious John Moore 24 exhibition of painting at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool.

Catriona Price Music, Violin

Born and bred in Orkney, Catriona started out learning traditional Scottish fiddle playing until her teacher persuaded her that classical music was just as ‘cool’. Now she excels in both styles.

Charles Gallagher Music, Concertina

Having started out by playing Irish Traditional Music on the fiddle, Charles was given a concertina to try and hasn’t looked back since. After only six months of playing, he came third in the British Championships.

Charlotte Mackechnie Music, Violin

Charlotte began playing the violin at the age of eight and piano when she was ten. She is also a very promising singer. Her first TV appearance was at the age of five when she sang a solo alongside Carol Smillie.

Cheryl Turner Music, Harp

Cheryl is the sixth generation of traditional musicians in her family, an unbroken lineage dating back to the early 1800’s in County Donegal in Ireland. She plays accordion and fiddle, as well as clàrsach, which she started to learn when she was 11.

Christina Corfield Visual Arts

Bristol-born Christina Corfield moved to Glasgow to study art at the Glasgow School of Art. She is now working as a freelance artist and dedicated to her practice as a visual artist.

Christina Knox Music, Violin

Christina is currently studying at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where she is achieving success. In her first and second years at College she won the Hargreaves Fund Prize for coming top of the year.

Christopher Maxwell Film, Cinematography

From East Kilbride, Chris is focussed on a career in the film industry behind the camera. While still a student, he was sent to the Cannes Film Festival to make a documentary

Christopher Murray Film, Editing

Hailing from Glenrothes, Chris Murray studied film and media at Stirling University. As a student he impressed as one of the best thinkers and practitioners about aspects of film-making, demonstrating real creative potential.

Coline Scobie Music, Violin

Colin won an assisted place at St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh, where he studies violin, viola and composition. Since the age of ten he has been set on a career in classical music performance.

Craig Creelman Dance

Craig first started studying dance at Anniesland College. His talent quickly shone through when his choreographed piece ‘Three’s a Crowd’ won gold in both the UK Skills Challenge and Craftex UK.

Daniel Hunter Music, Violin

An extremely gifted multi-instrumentalist, Daniel has won several All Scotland titles and has represented Scotland at All Britain and All Ireland competitions through the Comhaltas organisation.

Daniel Short Music, Guitar

One of a small band of Scottish jazz guitarists, Daniel is currently resident guitarist with the award-winning Strathclyde Jazz Orchestra.

David Liddell Film, Cinematography

David Liddell gained a first class honours in digital film and television at Glasgow’s RSAMD. Since then he has won both an RTVSS award and a ‘Best Cinematography’ award at Scottish Students on Screen.

Declan Stark Music, Piano, Saxophone

Thirteen year old Declan, from Airdrie, won the South Lanarkshire outstanding award for music when he was only 11. Declan is passionate about his music and plays both the alto saxophone and piano.

Derek McGhie Musical Theatre

Hailing from Lanarkshire, Derek McGhie has worked as an actor for ten years

Donald Grant Music, Violin

Inverness-born Donald Grant was brought up in Lochaber. He learned Gaelic songs from his father and regularly attended Feisean nan Gaidheal. He won numerous prizes at the National Mod and Pan-Celtic festival.

Duncan Lyall Music, Double Bass

At an early age Duncan demonstrated an enthusiasm for music, starting first with piano lessons at the age of 5, then with the guitar and finally the double bass. He has recorded on almost 30 albums, performed all over Europe and Canada and been a member of some of the leading Scottish traditional groups.

Emma Pratt Visual Arts, Sculpture

Emma Pratt graduated with a first-class honours degree in Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College, Dundee. While at college, Emma received the RSA Sculpture Prize, the Carnegie Travelling Scholarship and, for her degree show, the Farquhar Reid Art Trust Prize.

Euan Fulton Music, Composition

Euan was a pupil at the Douglas Academy Music School. He went on to study music at the University of Glasgow. Euan was a member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland for four years and progressed to become pianist with the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Felipe Oliveira Music, Opera Singing

Whilst still a medical student Felipe decided to enter a singing competition and won the Revelation Prize. The jury, which included directors of two of the major international opera companies, told him to keep singing as he had talent.

Fraya Thomsen Music, Harp

Born in Sutherland, Fraya is considered to be one of the best clàrsach players of her generation. She studied Scottish traditional music at RSAMD, Glasgow, where she graduated with a first class honours degree.

Gayle Rankin Drama, Acting

Gayle Rankin has long had an ambition to study drama at the Juilliard School. She achieved her goal when she was one of 18 successful candidates - out of an estimated 3,500 worldwide - to be accepted.

Gordon Bragg Music, Conducting

From Dunblane, Gordon Bragg began as a highly-talented violinist, in later years leading NYOS, Camerata Scotland and NYOS Futures. He went on to study violin at the Guildhall in London. After graduating, he joined the postgraduate conducting programme at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Graham Mackenzie Music, Violin

Graham, from Inverness, is considered to be one of Scotland’s finest up-and-coming musicians who will become a leading player of his generation. Already he is an accomplished and exciting performer full of style and grace.

Hannah Venet Dance

Edinburgh-born Hannah Venet developed an interest in dance when she was four years old. Initially she began as a pupil at the Theatre School, Edinburgh and joined the Scottish Ballet Junior Associates in 1998.

Hayley Scanlan Crafts, Fashion Design, Textile Design

Whilst just three-quarters of the way through her degree in textile design at Duncan of Jordanstone, Hayley was offered the chance in a professional life-time of an internship with top fashion designer Jeremy Scott in Los Angeles.

James McArdle Drama, Acting

Glasgow-born James is the youngest Scot to have been accepted by RADA in almost ten years. The list of graduates from RADA read like a ‘Who’s Who’ in British acting.

Jamie Keen Dance, Musical Theatre

A former pupil of the Dance School of Scotland in Knightswood, Irvine’s Jamie Keen has his eyes firmly set on London’s West End theatres. Jamie is now studying Dance and Theatre Performance at Kent’s Bird College.

Jenna Reid Music, Violin

Shetland-born Jenna Reid began playing the fiddle when she was nine. Together with her brother, sister and pianist mother she formed the family band Filska. The band has recorded three albums and toured the world.

Jenni Fagan Literature, Poetry, Novels, Writing

Jenni has been writing creatively since she was in primary school where she won competitions for short stories and poems. Since then, her writing achievements are impressive.

Jenny Randall Film, Production

Jenny started training in film making at Dundee University, where she specialised in film. She was considered to be one of the most talented students on the programme where she achieved top grades in all her assessments.

Joanne Timmins Drama, Directing

Joanne Timmins is considered to be a most original, committed, disciplined and intelligent young theatre director, and a name to watch.

Jodie Oliver Musical Theatre, Directing

Jodie’s interest has always been in directing musical theatre, although this is not an easy path for a female to follow. She directed many productions in Edinburgh before moving to London to try to establish a career for herself and build a name for herself.

John Burlington Dance, Musical Theatre

John’s early dance training was at some of the leading dance schools for young people in Scotland. In 1994 he performed in a production of ‘Oliver!’ at the London Palladium. In 1999 he won the Young Dancer of the Year Competition in North Lanarkshire

Jonathan Boyd Crafts, Jewellery, Silversmithing

Jonathan has been designing jewellery to wear since he was sixteen years old. He gained entry to Glasgow School of Art to pursue his passion for jewellery design, where he graduated with a first-class honours degree. He won the Richard Hubbard Memorial Prize while at the GSA.

Katie McIvor Music, Harp

In her sixth year at Peebles High when she won the Award, Katie started playing the harp in 2002. She performs regularly with the Peebles Youth Orchestra.

Kayleigh Sharp Music, Flute

Kayleigh has won prizes in local music festivals and is current holder of the Inverclyde Music Festival’s Musician’s Union Shield and Trophy as well as being 2007 winner of the Greenock Rotary Club’s ‘Young Musician of the Year’.

Keith Gray Crafts, Textile Design

While studying at Central St Martin’s Keith worked on a number of design collections which were subsequently shown in London, Milan and Paris Fashion weeks.

Kevin Young Dance

Paisley-born Kevin Young’s story is pure ‘Billy Elliott’. His first dance teacher well remembers him as one of a group of boys who would hang about outside her dance classes annoying the girls as they entered and left the classes.

Laura Helyer Literature, Novels, Poetry

Laura is poised to become an important voice in British poetry as her work becomes more widely published. Already she has shown to have unusual talent combined with intelligence and an ability to write with a language of precision and rare sensitivity.

Lauren Stark Music, Clarinet, Piano

Twelve-year-old Lauren, from Airdrie, won the Kathleen McCartney music award for the community in 2007. She and her brother Declan, also a Dewar Arts Awardee, come from a musical family, inspired by her father who plays five instruments.

Louise McMonagle Music, Cello

At the age of 11, Louise won a place at the Douglas Academy Music School. She went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, graduating with a first-class honours and receiving the Dip RAM for outstanding final recital.

Lynsey McRitchie Music, Harp

From Stornoway in the Western Isles, Lynsey has been involved in music making in her local community for years.

Mairead McManus Music, Flute

Born and brought up in Scotland, Mairéad is a winner of many All-Britain and All-Ireland traditional music titles. She began traditional music classes by learning the penny whistle.

Maria Kozlova Music, Opera Singing

Russian-born Maria Kozlova came to Glasgow to study opera at RSAMD, after graduating with distinction in choral conducting from the St Petersburg Conservatoire.

Marie O'Connor Crafts, Textile Design

From Nitshill in Glasgow, Marie O’Connor graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1999. She won a place on the highly competitive masters course in Mixed Media Textiles at the Royal College of Art in London.

Martin Murphy Music, French Horn

At an early age, Martin showed his natural musical talent and rapidly developed this talent at school to become one of the best students his music teacher had encountered in 17 years of teaching.

Martin O'Connor Drama, Acting

Martin says that he is "inspired by gender politics in today’s society and am aware of the press and media’s power to manipulate our viewpoints. I recognise there is a massive crisis affecting men, especially young men, and this informed my work.”

Maureen McMullan Music, Vocals

Maureen studied voice and piano from the age of 12. She went on to study music at Strathclyde University, gaining a first class degree in Applied Music, winning the ‘Sir Alexander Stone Prize for Excellence in Performance’ for her final recital.

Mia Valenti

Mia's first appearance on the stage was at the age of eight when she was given the role of the young Juliet in the premiere of Robert North’s Romeo and Juliet by Scottish Ballet.

Michael Turner Music, Violin

MIchael Osborne Film, Drama, Production

Dumfries-born Michael graduated with distinction from Queen Margaret University College in 2005 with a degree in stage management and theatre production. Since graduation he has been working freelance in Scotland’s theatre and film industry.

Michael Segaud Music, Violin

Hailing from Perth, Michael gained a music scholarship to Strathallan School in Perthshire and from that time onwards has devoted himself to becoming a professional musician.

Miriam-Rose McFadyen Music, Violin

Miriam-Rose is currently pursuing a masters in music performance at RSAMD. She has played with all of the Academy’s orchestras and was co-leader of the Symphony Orchestra.

Naomi Berrill Cello, Music

Currently studying cello performance in Italy, Naomi excels in many musical genres and is equally talented at classical, jazz and folk.

Nuala Kennedy Music, Flute

Nuala is an accomplished and versatile musician. Her flute playing is beautifully lyrical and steeped in the tradition of both Irish and Scottish traditional music

Oliver Smith Film, Animation

It’s not that unusual for a twelve-year-old to be a whizz at computers. But what is remarkable about Oliver Smith is that he entered Digital Eden, a competition for adults as part of the 2006 Inverness Film Festival, and was one of six winners.

Raim Koo Cello, Music

Korean-born Raim Koo moved to Scotland when he was 4 years old. He started having cello lessons whilst still at primary school and won a place at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh in 2000.

Robert Torrance Music, Violin

From the lovely Fife town of St. Andrews, Robert’s greatest ambition is to lead a successful career as a professional solo violinist. Those who have heard Robert have no difficulty in believing that he will achieve his ambition.

Ronald Nairn Music, Opera, Singing

Ronald was accepted into the National Youth Choir of Scotland when he was 16 and was immediately cast as a soloist. With the choir he toured Sweden and performed in Chicago.

Ruth Davidson Music, Violin

Ruth started to play the violin at the age of seven and since then has gone on to win a number of prestigious music awards, including first place in the 2006 Bell Baxter Centenary Music Competition.

Ryan Young Music, Violin

Ryan started playing the fiddle at the age of nine and from that moment decided that he wanted to be a professional musician. He has been attending the RSAMD (Youthworks) programme, for which he was awarded a scholarship.

Ryan Young Music, Violin

Sadah Webster Music, Oboe

Born in Brisbane of British parents, Sadah came back to Glasgow to pursue a Masters in oboe performance at the RSAMD.

Samantha Blaney Musical Theatre

Wishaw-born Samantha Blaney began studying musical theatre at Motherwell College before going on to win a place on the RSAMD’s MA in Performance in Musical Theatre.

Samuel Rutherford Music, Accordion

Born in Inverness, Samuel was inspired to take up the accordion after hearing the ceilidh band Skerryvore performing on Coll. He asked if he could have a go at playing their accordion and was hooked.

Selina Law Crafts, Textile Design

Selina gained a first-class honours degree specialising in woven textiles and is currently designer in residence at Duncan of Jordanstone College.

Shaun Kelly Dance

Perth-born Shaun Kelly auditioned for the Dance School of Scotland in Knightswood when he was in primary seven.

Steven Blake Music, Pipes

Steven started learning the Highland bagpipes at a young age, winning many solo competitions, including the Stirlingshire Mod and the Lothian and Borders solo contest, culminating in becoming the Scottish Schools’ Piobaireachd Champion three years’ running.

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DEWAR ARTS AWARDS Supporting Scotland's Brightest & Best

2007

Youth arts funding trust grant Scotland Scottish young people music film dance literature visual art craft drama theatre

DEWAR ARTS AWARDS
Supporting Scotland's Brightest & Best