The 2008 Scholarship
The winner of the 2008 Wagner Society of Scotland Bayreuth Scholarship is Fiona Sarah Scott, an outstanding soprano, currently a postgraduate student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and studying (with Pat Hay) for the M.Mus (Opera) degree. Fiona graduated with B.Mus.(Hons) at the Royal Northern College of Music in July 2004, and holds diplomas in performance (RNCM) and in opera studies (RSAMD). Her previous awards include a Dame Eva Turner Scholarship for Dramatic Sopranos (2005-06) and the Clare Croiza French Song Prize (2006).
About the Scholarship
This annual scholarship is offered by the Wagner Society of Scotland, in association with the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation [Richard-Wagner-Stipedienstiftung] in Bayreuth, to a singer, instrumentalist, conductor or a student of those subjects, or of theatre studies including design and stage management, aged between 18 and 35 years old. Candidates must be professional musicians (or persons with a career in an aspect of theatre production) resident in Scotland, or Scottish-born students of any of the above subjects still at college or university, or full-time students (of any nationality) at a Scottish educational establishment. The successful applicant receives tickets for the Bayreuth Festival, a programme of tours and events there, and funds [£700 in 2007] to defray the cost of travel expenses.
What are the aims of the Scholarship?
Wagner conceived of his festival in Bayreuth as a people's festival along the lines of those that took place in ancient Greece. Thus he wanted to make attendance completely free as had then been the case. Since this was not possible for understandable reasons, in 1882, a year before his death, he established a new fund that should facilitate "free attendance, if necessary including travel and accommodation costs for friends of my art" who visit the festival. Thus the Richard Wagner Scholarship Fund was established. It aims to broaden and deepen the notion of the Bayreuth Festival. To achieve this it enables attendance at several performances for "gifted up-and-coming musicians, singers or other artists, who might come into consideration in due course for the orchestra or stage at the Bayreuth Festival". Today this is financed with contributions from Wagner Societies around the world who are affiliated to the International Association of Wagner Societies [Richard-Wagner-Verband-International]. The Gesellschaft der Freunde von Bayreuth also gives a subsidy.
The 2009 Scholarship
Applications for the 2009 Scholarship will be placed on this page in autumn 2008.
