Announcing the 2024 Irish Heritage Bursary Winners

We are proud to announce the winners of our bursaries, following the auditions at Wigmore Hall on 13th February and we must thank John Gilhooly, CBE., Joe Duer and all the wonderful staff at Wigmore Hall for their assistance on the day. The prestige leant to us by having this event there is inestimable to both Irish Heritage and to all the performers.

The winners are as follows:

- The Irish Heritage Bursary for Performance: Gabriel Francis-Dehqani (cello)
- The Brackaville Bursary for Vocal Studies: Owen Lucas (tenor)
- The Homan Potterton Bursary for String Instruments: Sacha Bistany (guitar) and Jayden Lamcellari (cello)
- Special Prize: Fiachra de hOra (viola)

Thank you to all the wonderful performers who auditioned and to all the supporters who came to watch the final. Thanks also to our two panels of adjudicators; Anna Cashel, Elizabeth Cooney, Fiachra Garvey, Andrew King, Gavan Ring and Christopher Speight and to our brilliant committee who worked tirelessly pulling everything together. We have updated our website with the full list and their bios. They will all of course be joining us during our concerts throughout the year, so do make sure you book your tickets via the events page.

You will know that we have an annual collaboration with Blackwater Valley Opera Festival. Michael and Gianni Alen-Buckley, patrons of Irish Heritage as well as same with BVOF, have very kindly added to the prize our bursary winners will receive this year. This is in addition to being invited to Lismore to perform at the festival. We heartily thank Michael and Gianni for their continued generosity.

Mary, Lady Clancy-Hatch, also patron, must also be thanked most sincerely for her continued financial support. She regularly lends her professional abilities to provide valued advice to us.

Further thanks to Alex Heusen for continuing the sponsorship of the Homan Potterton bursary, to Michael and Loret O’Brien for the same with the Brackaville Bursary and to the Ireland Funds of GB for their sponsorship of the Composition Bursary.