2025 Composition Bursary Winner

This year's winner of the Irish Heritage Composition Award is Royal Academy of Music Masters of Arts (Composition) student Nicholas Gawley. There was a great response to the bursary with a high standard of applications received from Irish/second-generation Irish students studying at universities or conservatoires in the UK and Ireland. The adjudication panel was comprised of Irish-Welsh composer Piers Connor Kennedy, Irish trumpet player Niall O' Sullivan and Irish percussionist Alex Petcu-Colan. Their insights and comments were invaluable in the process and Nichoals was selected unanimously as this year's winner.

Nicolas made the following comments upon receiving the news of his award:

"I am enormously grateful to Irish Heritage for selecting me for this bursary. I have already benefited greatly from the unique opportunities that the Royal Academy of Music has given me over the past year, but it is not without enormous cost. This bursary will enable me to better engage with the course and maximise my access to the immense cultural resources that London has to offer. The support that Irish Heritage, and the sponsor of this award the Ireland Funds of Great Britain, offer is crucial for enabling Irish musicians to further their careers, and I’d like to again give immense thanks to them for their generosity."

Nicholas' piece 'Prelude, March, and Cortège' was premiered at the Royal Over-Seas League on the 7th of May where this year's performance bursary winners were showcased as part of our prize-winners concert. The theme of the concert was a celebration of VE Day for the 80 years anniversary, and the composition award entrants were asked to explore themes relating to war, peace and victory for their compositions to reflect this. The winning composition was a chamber work performed by trombonist Clara Daly-Donnellan, 2025 Irish Heritage Special Award winner percussionist Thomas Kelly, 2023 Irish Heritage Accompanist Award winner Georgian Cassidy, clarinettist William Hammond and trumpeter John Kerr.