The winner of the Prince’s Prize 2019 is clarinettist, Elliot Gresty. The Award was made at the annual Prince’s Prize concert held at the Music Hall in the Guildhall School of Music & Drama on Monday 29th April. The distinguished panel of adjudicators comprised conductor Jane Glover, baritone, Donald Maxwell and saxophonist, composer and conductor John Harle.
The Prince’s Prize was established to mark the installation of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales as an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians on 21 November 2003. The Prize is to recognise ‘the most promising young instrumentalist or singer from the Company’s award winners’ in the current year and consists of an award of £10,000 and a Silver Medal.
The Prize received a generous endowment in 2015 from The Eranda Rothschild Foundation and Rothschilds Bank, in memory of Leopold de Rothschild.
Elliot Gresty joins a list of past winners that include Amy Dickson, Milos Karadaglic and Duncan Rock. Elliot studied at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and is now a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Music studying with Richard Hosford, Timothy Lines and Barnaby Robson. From 2012–2014 Elliot was the principal clarinettist of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and in February 2018 he won the Royal Overseas League Award for a Woodwind Player of Promise. He has played with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra and is currently on trial for the position of Principal Clarinet with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Elliot plays regularly with the new music group An Assembly whose concerts have featured on Radio 3’s Hear and Now and Open Ear programmes. He has been selected to take part in the 2018/19 London Philharmonic Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme.
The winner of the Audience Prize of £500 was Bass, William Thomas.
Each year the Musicians’ Company, one of the oldest and most respected charitable companies in the City of London, donates over £250,000 in scholarships and awards in support of young musicians at the start of their careers across all musical disciplines.
