Australian violinist Emily Sun won the 64th ROSL Annual Music Competition Section Final for Strings on Tuesday 16 February and was awarded the £5,000 prize and sought after place at the Grand Final on 1 June 2016. The evenings’ competition was exceptional; with diverse and entertaining programmes from all but it was Emily who wowed the audience and the adjudicators with her performance of:  

·       Violin Sonata in G minor – Debussy
     Allegro vivo
·       Fantaisie Brillante on themes from Gounod's opera 'Faust' op.20 – Wieniawski

The quality of the competition was clear from the very first audition. 38 young musicians from across the Commonwealth auditioned over a period of three days before the final five were selected by adjudicators: Gavin Henderson, Susie Meszaros, Rohan de Saram and Ashan Pillai. 17 year old Stephanie Childress violin, Indira Grier cello, New Zealander Amalia Hall violin, and Australians Ann Beilby viola and Emily Sun violin, made up the evenings all female final; the second year in a row that women musicians have dominated the Strings Section Final.

Australian violinist Emily Sun, a graduate of the Royal College of Music, is no stranger to success having won all major Australian violin competitions including the coveted Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year Award.  Emily has also won the Royal College of Music 2012 Violin Competition and 2015 Concerto Competition. Emily performs regularly with as a soloist with all major Australian Symphony Orchestras, as well as internationally with Symphony Arlington in the US, and China’s Shanghai Youth Orchestra.

Gavin Henderson, Chairman of the Adjudicators, presented cellist Indira Grier with the Len Lickorish Memorial Prize, a £1000 prize. 20 year old, British cellist Indira Grier started playing the cello at the age of four, and for 10 years studied at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music, during which time she won all available prizes including the 2013 Concerto Competition. Indira frequently performs in the UK as part of the Grier Trio.

Emily Sun now joins fellow Section Final winners, Philip Attard, saxophone, and Henry Neill, baritone at the Grand Final held at Cadogan Hall as they compete for the prestigious Gold Medal prize of £10,000.

ROSL Annual Music Competition Section Finals take place each Tuesday 7-9pm at Over-Seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street, London, SW1A 1LR:

·       2 February: Wind and Percussion – winner Philip Attard saxophone
·       9 February: Singers – winner Henry Neill baritone
·       16 February: Strings – winner Emily Sun violin
·       23 February: Keyboard
·       1 March: Ensemble A (Strings & Keyboard)
·       8 March: Ensemble B (Wind and Mixed)
·       15 March: Over-Seas Award
·       1 June: Grand Final held at Cadogan Hall, London.

Tickets: £15. To book tickets email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 020 7408 0214 ext 219

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IMAGES
A selection of high res images can be provided on request.

CONTACT
For more information contact Gemma Matthews, Director of Marketing on T 020 7016 6904 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. visit www.rosl.org.uk

NOTES FOR THE EDITOR
Founded in 1910, the Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) is a non-profit private members' club dedicated to championing international friendship and understanding. ROSL helps artists and musicians across the Commonwealth connect, collaborate and create. Our humanitarian work benefits communities and changes lives.

ROSL ARTS supports talented young artists and musicians from the UK and Commonwealth, providing performance and exhibition opportunities which bring their work to the attention of the professional arts community, media and general public.

ROSL ANNUAL MUSIC COMPETITION

The ROSL Annual Music Competition grew out of a series of concerts inaugurated at Over-Seas House London in 1947 under the banner ‘Festival of Commonwealth Youth’. The Festival became competitive in 1952, with a first prize of £10. Over the past 60 years the competition has grown in scope and prestige and now awards in excess of £70,000 for solo performers, accompanists and chamber ensembles. Past ROSL prizewinners make an impressive alumni of musicians of the highest calibre who have established prominent careers in the music profession. Past winners of the Strings Award are:

Robert Cooper violin (1952) *
Rohan de Saram cello, (1955) *
Winifred Durie viola (1957) *
John Georgiadis violin (1960) *
Jacqueline du Pre cello (1961) *
Roy Malan violin (1962) *
Ross Pople violin (1963) *
Sharon McKinley cello (1964) *
Leslie Child violin (1965) *
Hannah Francis harp (1966) *
Marius May cello (1972) *
Colin Carr cello (1974) *
Lorraine McAslan violin (1976) *
Ralph de Souza violin (1977) *
Susie Meszaros viola (1978) *
Jonathan Rees violin (1979)
Peter Manning violin (1980) *


Jagdish Mistry violin (1981)
Carla Marie Rodrigues viola (1982)
Christopher Marwood cello (1983)


Gina McCormack violin (1984)
Ieuen Jones harp (1985) *
Anthony Marwood violin (1985)
Aline Brewer harp (1986)
Philip Levy violin (1987)
Lucy Wakefield harp (1987)
Aaron Stolow violin (1988)
Nicola Hall guitar (1989) *
Abigail Young violin (1990)
Janice Graham violin (1991)
Liam Abramson cello (1992)
Andrew Haveron violin (1993)
Philip Dukes (1993)
Priya Mitchell violin (1994)
Laura Samual violin (1995)


Alice Neary cello (1996)
Liwei Qin cello (1997) *
Daniel Bell violin (1998)
Thomas Carroll cello (1999)
Benjamin Nabarro violin (2000)



Marie Macleod cello (2001)
Gemma Rosefield cello (2002)
Katherine Wood cello (2003)
Ruth Palmer violin (2004)
Tamsin Waley-Cohen violin (2005)
John Myerscough cello (2006) *
Pei-Sian Ng cello (2007) *
Victoria Simonsen cello (2008)
Yelian He cello (2009)
Jun Sasaki cello (2010)
Sean Shibe guitar (2011) *
Benjamin Baker violin (2012)
Michael Foyle violin (2013)
Toby Hughes double bass (2014) Juliana Myslov harp (2015)




*indicates Gold Medal Prizewinner

To mark ROSLs centenary in 2010 an appeal was launched to secure the future endowment of the ROSL Annual Music Competition Awards and Commonwealth Music Scholarships, currently worth £125,000 per annum. The funds are held in the ROSL Golden Jubilee Trust (registered charity 306095). To make a donation contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Royal Over-Seas League
Over-Seas House
Park Place
London SW1A 1LR


020 7408 0214

Royal Over-Seas League

Over-Seas House

100 Princes Street

Edinburgh EH2 3AB

0131 225 1501