About ROSL ARTS
What we do
For over 60 years ROSL ARTS has developed a diverse portfolio of activities in music, visual arts, and literature. ROSL ARTS is devoted to the career development of talented young professional artists and musicians from the UK and the Commonwealth, and also presents readings and literary events at its central London headquarters.
The principal ways in which ROSL ARTS supports artists and musicians is through the ROSL Annual Music Competition, ROSL Commonwealth Music Scholarships, and ROSL Commonwealth Visual Arts Scholarships. ROSL ARTS also provides performance and exhibition opportunities for its prizewinning artists and musicians early in their careers, and thus brings their work to the attention of the professional arts community, the media, and the general public.
ROSL ARTS is supported by the membership and clubhouse operations of the Royal Over-Seas League and the ROSL Golden Jubilee Trust Fund (registered charity no 306095), as well as donations and sponsorship from many sources: businesses such as Harrods Bank and Coutts & Co; charitable trusts including the John Ellerman Foundation, the Rayne Foundation, the Underwood Trust, the Weinstock Fund; numerous private benefactors; the Friends of ROSL ARTS.
ROSL ARTS has collaborated and received support from the national arts councils of several Commonwealth countries, the British Council, Visiting Arts and UK regional arts boards. ROSL ARTS has collaborated with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in presenting outstanding young Commonwealth artists and musicians at the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings.
The ROSL Annual Music Competition is the centrepiece of ROSL ARTS’ year-round programme of events. The competition offers more than £70,000 in awards with a £10,000 first prize (the Gold Medal) for solo performers and two chamber ensemble awards of £10,000. The winners of the Wind & Percussion, Singers, Strings, and Keyboard solo sections and the accompanist prize receive £5,000 each. Gold Medal award winners since 2000 include Jonathan Lemalu bass-baritone, Juliette Bausor flute, Lucy Crowe soprano, Martin Cousin piano, Amy Dickson saxophone, Timothy Orpen clarinet, John Myerscough cello, Pei-Sian Ng cello, Laura Lucas flute, Ben Schoeman piano, Jonathan McGovern baritone, Jayson Gillham piano, Morgan Pearse baritone, Huw Wiggin saxophone, Alexander Soares piano and Emily Sun violin. The awarding of prizes marks the beginning of a relationship between ROSL and its competition alumni. ROSL ARTS offers where possible, support and mentoring to competition winners, as well as promoting prizewinners' concerts and events throughout the Commonwealth.
Applications for the 2017 competition, our 65th, are now open. Please follow this link to apply with Acceptd, the website from which we are managing our candidates.
The ROSL Commonwealth Music Scholarships have been widely expanded in the last few years, now including an award for a musician from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Annually, chamber musicians from Australia and New Zealand are selected to come to the UK for a scholarship tour, which includes giving concerts at various venues arranged by ROSL ARTS, coaching sessions with prestigious teachers at the London conservatoires and tickets to many of the finest concerts in the summer Proms season and other theatres. This experience often proves invaluable to our Commonwealth musicians, as they get a taste of professional music life in London, as well as at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in other music festivals around the UK. Winners of this award in the past have included the Antipodes Quartet, Duo Giacoso, Estrella Quartet, QUATTRO and the Tasman Duo.
The ROSL Visual Arts Scholarships are organised in association with several high profile galleries around the UK, and with Hospitalfield in Arbroath – a leading residency centre for artists. The aim of the scholarships is to the bring Commonwealth artists who have never exhibited out of their home country over to the UK to develop their practice with a month-long residency at Hospitalfield. In the following year they are then provided with the opportunity to exhibit with an established gallery. This process inspires both creative and professional development, and has been a fixture of the ROSL ARTS programme for many years. Previous participants in the programme include Jaime Lee Loy (Trinidad & Tobago), Prathap Modi (India), Nick Olsen (Australia), Holly Parotti (Bahamas), Leilah Babirye (Uganda), Jordy Hamilton (Canada) and Mehreen Murtaza (Pakistan).