In 2020 the Trustees agreed to create a special award for a deserving student of the Royal College of Music (RCM) to support them through one academic year. The ‘Robert Anderson Trust Special Award’ was intended as a response to the Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting very challenging situation in which musicians and other artists suffered greatly as a result of the cancellation of performances and other activities which are essential to their work. In 2021, with the virus continuing to cause disruption and hardship, the Trustees agreed to extend the award to a second year. Information about the holders of the award can be found below.

2021-2 Anibal Vidal

The second holder of the Special Award was Chilean composer Anibal Vidal who wass studying for the Artist Diploma in Composition.

Born in 1991 and based in London, Anibal is developing his career in different areas such as concert music, music for media and multidisciplinary projects. His orchestral piece ‘Gliding Murmuration’ won both the 20th Joan Guinjoan International Prize and the RCM Concerto Competition 2022. His chamber piece ‘Liquidity’ received the Merit Award in the 17th SunRiver Composition Prize with Tristan Murail as the Chairman of the jury. He is currently studying for the Artist Diploma in Composition at the Royal College of Music in London as a Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust Scholar and Henry Wood Accommodation Trust, in addition to the support he is receiving through the Special Award. He has a Master’s degree in Composition at Royal College of Music of London studying with professors Kenneth Hesketh and Jonathan Cole as a Henry Wood Trust and Becas Chile Crea scholar. In 2020, he was commissioned by Tête a Tête and RCM to compose his first opera, Amores Deloa. His works have been performed by such renowned ensembles in UK as Explore Ensemble, New Perspective Ensemble and Echo Ensemble. In 2019 his first original musical Manuel Rodriguez was commissioned and premiered by University of the Andes. In 2021, he exhibited the audiovisual installation Sublime s[t]imulations in collaboration with artist Carla Theurer at Menier Gallery, London. He was selected to be part of the BAFTA Crew 2021. In 2022 Anibal is the Resident Artist of Theatre Centre this year in UK. He is currently composing the soundtrack for the future Netflix series “Chromosome 21”.

A performance by Henriette Poos of Anibal’s composition ‘A Binary Sunset’ is available via YouTube and below:

 

2020-21 John Paul Jennings

The first holder of the Special Award was conductor John Paul Jennings, who subsequently became the Trust’s Resident Music Scholar in 2021-2. Further information about John Paul appears on the relevant page of the website, here.