A seventeen year old cellist from Edinburgh has won the highly prestigious Directors’ Recital Prize 2021.
Layla Ballard (S6) S6, was declared the winner of the 21st annual competition following a closely contested final with three other senior soloists. The other finalists were Benjamin Giblin (flute) aged 18 from Edinburgh, Lachlan Kennedy (violin) aged 17 from Glasgow and Bulgarian-Russian-American Pavlina Gusheva, age 17 (piano).
The four senior finalist soloists competed before a distinguished panel of judges for the award which took place at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh and was livestreamed to an audience of parents, alumni and extended families. This year’s judges were Jo Buckley, Director of St Mary’s Music School and Chief Executive Dunedin Consort, Bill Chandler, Director of Concerts and Engagement, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and James Waters, Director of the Lammermuir Festival, Creative Director Classical Music at Perth Concert Hall and Joint Artistic Director of the Bath Festival. Accompanists were Elena Fischer-Dieskau and Simon Smith and S6 pupil Cliodhna Scott played in the intermission.
Layla played Bach Cello Suite No.6 in D Major for unaccompanied cello, Second Movement - Allemande, Rachmaninov Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano Op 19 (1901) , Fourth Movement - Alllegro mosso (G major), and Demenga New York Honk for Cello and Piano.
She said " Walking onto the stage after so many months of not being able to perform live felt like a huge achievement in itself. The fact that I actually won the Director’s Recital Prize still feels surreal. I was so happy to be able to play with my friends (it felt more like a concert than a competition) and to hear their final recitals at such a high level having seen their growth throughout the years I’ve known them. I wanted my programme to represent my own progress during my time at St Mary’s and chose repertoire that helped represent my development as a cellist. When my name was called out by the judges as the winner I couldn’t quite believe it. To have won the DRP felt like such an amazing end to my time at this school and I couldn’t thank my friends and the teachers more for all the support they have provided to help me get this far and for preparing me for the next step in my musical career. I’m so proud of everyone and their performances and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for them.
Jo Buckley, Chair of the Judging panel commented "I am always staggered by the high standards that the young musicians of St Mary’s reach. As judges we have to remind ourselves that these are not professional performers in front of us! All four finalists played superbly, but Layla’s Rachmaninov was the uncontested highlight of the night. She lived the music, and we in turn lived it with her. It was a very moving and compelling performance which completely swept us away."
Dr Kenneth Taylor, Headteacher at St Mary’s Music School, added “The last 15 months have presented a wide range of challenges and the very high standard we witnessed in this years' competition is a tribute to the hard work, enthusiasm, musicianship and often the ingenuity of our pupils, teachers and accompanists. I would like to congratulate Layla and all the finalists on their excellent performances. The prize is donated annually by the School’s board of directors and provides pupils with experience of public solo performance in a competition situation. For aspiring professional musicians, audiences are vital and although we were not able to open our doors to the public this year I thank everyone who supported these young musicians by watching the livestream.”
Layla has been at St Mary's Music School since 2014, taught by Duncan Strachan. In September she will be starting her studies at the Royal College of Music in London with teacher Melissa Phelps. She has been part of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years and has had the opportunities to play in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Konzerthaus in Berlin and Queens Hall in Edinburgh as an orchestral player and soloist.
Benjamin leaves St Mary's to go on to study a Bachelor of Music at Oxford University He has been part of the National Youth Choir of Scotland for three years, the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland for some years and has had opportunities to play and sing in events such as West Side Story at the Usher Hall with Sir John Elliot Gardiner and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Ben has studied with Lis Dooner and his chosen programme was in honour of his mother Helen Ella, (flautist) who also attended St Mary's Music School.
Pavlina has been at St Mary's Music School since the age of 13 and studies with Helena Buckmayer. She was a finalist of DRP 2020 and has competed in numerous international competitions in Bulgaria and is a laureate of the Russian Centre for Culture and Science and Pernik Palace of Culture, piano duet and solo category. She continues to study at School for another year.
Lachlan became a pupil in 2013 and studies violin with Frances Cummings and is in his final year at St Mary's Music School. He leaves to study music at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge in the Autumn.
Photo: Pavlina Gusheva, Benjamin Giblin, Layla Ballard and Lachlan Kennedy