NORAH SANDE AWARD 2021
A piano competition for Young Adult Pianists of Kent, Sussex, Surrey and London postal districts
| The Norah Sande Award Artistic Director and Founder Trustee, Spencer Freeman MBE, who has been the inspiration for the Awards from the start more than 17 years ago, passed away this month. This has come as a great shock to us all and out thoughts are very much with his wife Pam at this time. However, we feel that it is right that we continue with this year's event and that this is what Spencer would have wanted. |
LONDON BASED PIANIST DOMINIC DOUTNEY WINS EASTBOURNE’S NORAH SANDE AWARD 2021
The Norah Sande Award, an international piano competition held annually in Eastbourne in July 2021 was won by Dominic Doutney. Dominic received a cheque for £2000 and the opportunity to perform in a recital later in the year. The final stages were held in the purpose-built concert hall at the Birley Centre, Eastbourne College. Fifteen semi-finalists performed a 20 minute programme on Saturday 3rd July before a prestigious adjudication panel of keyboard exponents of international repute. Three were chosen to perform a full recital programme incorporating classical, romantic and contemporary pieces the following day. David Patrick said that the three had been chosen from an outstanding field of performers at the semi-finals. Two pianists were highly commended from the second round of recitals, such was the quality of performances.
Norah Sande Award winner 2021, Dominic Doutney receives a cheque for £2,000 and an opportunity to perform in a recital from Adjudicator Richard Deering
Dominic
Doutney has recently graduated from the Royal College of Music, where he was
the recipient of the Fishmongers' Company Beckwith Scholarship. At his
graduation he was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal, given to two
students annually for outstanding contribution to the Royal College.
Dominic
was awarded 3rd prize at the Jaén International Piano Competition in Spain in
April this year. In July, he was awarded 1st prize in the Norah Sande Award,
and in September, 3rd prize in the Clamo International Piano Competition in
Murcia, Spain. Dominic is also the 2020 winner of the Royal Over-Seas League
Award for Keyboard. Last summer Dominic attended the Oxford Piano Festival on
the personal invitation of Sir Andras Schiff, having played in a highly publicised
masterclass with him at the Royal College of Music in May. In the summer of
2019 Dominic studied at the Aspen Festival and School in Colorado, on a
Polonsky Foundation Fellowship, having previously taken part in the piano
masterclass programme at the Banff Centre in Canada (thanks to the
English-Speaking Union’s Yehudi Menuhin scholarship). Dominic is a former joint
winner of the EPTA UK Piano Competition and winner of the Royal College of
Music’s Teresa Carreño (2013) and Constance Poupard (2014) prizes. In 2017,
Dominic was placed third in the Joan Chissell Schumann Prize, and in 2016,
second at the Isidor Bajic Memorial Competition (category B).
Dominic
is becoming a seasoned recitalist and concerto soloist. In April this year he
performed Brahms 1st concerto with the Málaga Philharmonic, having performed it
two years prior with the Leipziger-symphonieorchester in the Leipzig Gewandhaus
Mendelssohn-Saal, to critical acclaim. In October last year he performed
Schumann’s Piano Concerto in St John’s Smith Square with the Young Musician’s
Symphony Orchestra and Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in November with the
Dorset Chamber Orchestra. Other concerto performances have included
Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (with Martyn Brabbins and
the Royal College of Music symphony orchestra), Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 2,
Rachmaninov’s Piano Concertos nos. 2 & 3, Grieg’s Piano Concerto, and
Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto no. 1.
Solo
appearances have included recitals at the prestigious Beaumaris and Beaujolais
music festivals (France), Leipzig’s Media Campus Villa Ida, the Poros Piano
Festival (Greece), the Banff Centre (Alberta, Canada), and in Moscow (at the
invitation of the Spivakov Foundation). Closer to home, Dominic has performed at
the Bolivar Hall, Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, the
Elgar Room (at the Royal Albert Hall) and at 22 Mansfield Street (for the
Nicholas Boas Foundation).
Dominic has made
appearances on BBC Radio 3 (performing Chopin and discussing the art of
virtuosity) and on CNBC (discussing the experience of participating in a
masterclass with Lang Lang). Dominic has studied in masterclasses with artists
including Stephen Hough, Peter Donohoe, Boris Berman, Veda Kaplinsky, Hung-Kuan
Chen and John Perry.
Finalists of the 2021 Norah Sande Award - Left: 3rd place Nuno Lucas - Centre: Winner Dominic Doutney - Right: runner up Joe Howson
The 2022 Award will take place on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th July 2022 and entry form is available on www.sande-award.co.uk. This Award has been enabled by a substantial bequest from the late Norah Sande, in memory of her Grandmother, Alice Mary Caffin. The Norah Sande Award is a registered charity.