Musicians invited to apply to the prestigious BBC NI/Arts Council NI Young Musicians’ Platform Award
15th October, 2024
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI), in partnership with BBC Northern Ireland, is calling for young, exceptional, solo musicians from across Northern Ireland to apply for the NI Young Musicians' Platform Award, Supported by Arts Council National Lottery funding and BBC Northern Ireland, the award is open for applications on the ACNI website and will close at 12 noon on Monday 11 November 2024. Auditions will be held in December at The MAC in Belfast, with decisions expected later in December 2024.

These prestigious biennial awards, aim to showcase and support the development of exceptional young musicians from Northern Ireland by providing funding awards, worth up to £5000 each, to solo musicians and singers/singer-songwriters in Classical, Jazz, Contemporary and Traditional Music, who are ready to enter the professional world as artists. This financial award enables recipients to develop their musical aspirations by spending a sizeable amount of time learning from a master musician, mentor, teacher or composer either in Northern Ireland or abroad.
Watch the video below.
In addition to this training opportunity, each recipient will benefit from professional engagements arranged by BBC Northern Ireland for a broadcast chamber music/solo recital and/or concerto performance including with the Ulster Orchestra where appropriate. The BBC will facilitate this by offering professional broadcast performances to successful applicants, in the period January 2025 to December 2026. Performances at this level raise not only the professional profile of the young musician but also gives a boost to their performance experience.
Highlighting BBC Radio Ulster and Foyle’s commitment to specialist music and developing new musical talent, four presenters from the station will mentor the young awardees, follow their progress on their programmes and help them prepare for performances with the Ulster Orchestra for live broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster. John Toal, a classical pianist and presenter of Classical Connections will mentor the classical awardees; Folk Club presenter, Neil Martin, will mentor the traditional awardee who will be given the opportunity to perform at Tradfest; Scott Flanigan, jazz musician will mentor the jazz awardee, who will perform at Scott’s Jazz Club, and Stephen McCauley, presenter of The Stephen McCauley Show, will mentor the singer-songwriter awardee, who will perform at Stendhal Festival.
Ciaran Scullion, Head of Music, at the Arts Council, commented:
“The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is proud to support the NI Young Musicians’ Platform Award thanks to game-changing funding from The National Lottery players. We want to provide meaningful opportunities for our most exceptional young talent to develop their musical careers, and the NI Young Musicians’ Platform Award offers a valuable opportunity for outstanding musicians to do that. They can develop their skills, learn from the best in their genre, and receive professional performance experience with the BBC. All of the previous awardees have gone on to have successful, musical careers and I’ve every confidence that their experience received through this award acted as a powerful catalyst in shaping their professional development.”
Paul McClean, Executive Editor, Music, Arts and Events, BBC Northern Ireland, says,
“We truly believe that BBC Radio Ulster and Foyle is ‘Where Music Matters’ and we are dedicated to providing our listeners with the best in specialist music. Nurturing new talent is something we are extremely passionate about and we are delighted to be involved in finding new classical, alternative, jazz and traditional artists. Being able to have our listeners engage in these young musicians’ journey will be incredible to watch as they grow and develop with some help from our mentors.”
Those eligible to apply include:
- Solo musicians and singers/singer-songwriters in Classical, Jazz, Contemporary and Traditional Music who reside in or originate from Northern Ireland
- Artists who are at least 18 years old and up to an age limit of 26 for instrumental players, and 29 for singers
- Classical, jazz and traditional musicians who have made a meaningful contribution to artistic activities in Northern Ireland
- Applicants must have reached a high standard of public performance as indicated within the references and as demonstrated with a solo recording of two (2) contrasting works of no more than eight (8) minutes each
Previous recipients of the Young Musicians’ Platform Award include acclaimed classical pianist, Michael McHale, soprano, Laura Sheerin, harpist, Richard Allen, violinist, Michael Trainor, baritone, Brian McAlea, folk artists, Conor Mallon, Rose Connolly, Martha Guiney and Niall Hanna and jazz musicians, Ed Dunlop, Andrew McCoubrey and Katherine Timoney, plus singer-songwriter, ROE, among others.
Online applications are now open on the Arts Council of Northern Ireland website and will close at 12 noon Monday 11 November 2024. Auditions will be held in December at The MAC in Belfast with decisions expected later in December 2024. To view the Guidance Notes and make an application visit artscouncil-ni.org/funding-for-individuals/young-musicians-platform