Meet our first Graduate of the Month!
As 2021 is the London Music Fund’s 10 Year Anniversary, we thought we would celebrate by sharing stories about the alumni of our Scholarship programme. Each month we will feature one of our Graduates to show what LMF Scholars have gone on to do next! First up in February is Adrianna, a 2014-18 Scholar from Lambeth.
Adrianna was nominated for a Scholarship by Lambeth Music Service, when she was just eight years old, after showing exceptional promise on both piano and violin. She was very keen to continue with lessons and join in with as many musical activities as she could, but the cost of ongoing tuition at this level was becoming a barrier.
Throughout her four years, Adrianna was a model Scholar: working hard, showing a positive attitude to everything, and taking every opportunity offered to her. She had many wonderful performance opportunities, including a solo performance at the Imperial War Museum which was recorded and broadcasted by ITV, concerts with the London Youth Symphony Orchestra at the Southbank Centre, and a side by side performance of Dvorak’s New World Symphony with the Southbank Sinfonia.
Adrianna thrived during her four years as a Scholar and made astonishing progress. Having started as a beginner on the violin in 2014, she graduated having taken her Grade 7 and gained a place at Junior Trinity Laban Conservatoire to study violin and piano.
In addition to her talents on violin and piano, Adrianna is also a budding young singer, and in 2019 won the role of Flora in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at Garsington Opera, which won an RPS award for Best Opera in 2020. Adrianna received fantastic reviews and would have reprised the role in 2020 at the Royal Opera House had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now aged 14, Adrianna is in her third year at Trinity Laban Conservatoire on Saturdays, and is preparing for diplomas in both violin and piano. She will be taking GCSE Music next year.
We asked Adrianna some questions about her time as a London Music Fund Scholar, and her musical life at the moment…
Tell us about being a London Music Fund (formerly the Mayor's Fund for Young Musicians!) Scholar. What did you get from the experience?
I was able to have violin lessons every Saturday with the best teacher, Jose Gandia! I got up to Grade 7 on the violin and I had such amazing opportunities like playing at the Imperial War Museum as part of their Remembrance Day ceremonies in 2017. I also got to regularly take part in workshops with other musicians at City Hall, which was very innovative and exciting!
Tell us about your best moment(s) of being a Scholar – did you get to perform in some cool places/meet some interesting and exciting people?
My best moment of being a Scholar was playing Bach’s Sarabande in D Minor at the Imperial War Museum on a violin made during WW1 which made the most beautiful sound. I was interviewed by ITV after the performance and featured on the ITV News later that evening.
“I am really grateful to the London Music Fund for giving me such a wonderful opportunity to explore music.”
Adrianna, 2014-18 Scholar from Lambeth
What impact, if any, has music had on your life?
Music is what makes me happy. It is the one thing, that during hard times, can bring people together. I use it to express emotions and frame the way that I look upon world. I write my own songs and I compose classical pieces and just before last Christmas I composed a choral piece.
Did being a London Music Fund Scholar affect your attitude to learning music? Can you tell us how?
With the London Music Fund, I have been able to do much more than I ever would’ve been able to. Because I was presented with all these new opportunities, my love for music was always kept alive. I grew in confidence and my curiosity in all genres of music was kindled.