Nigel Foster, Director of the London Song Festival, declared that ‘an evening entirely devoted to English Song was an exciting and very special event’, and the Final of the 2024 Ashburnham English Song Awards proved to be just that. Scroll to find out who won the prizes and see more images of the evening, taken by photographer Peter Mould.
THE PRIZEWINNERS
Seven duo’s of finalists delivered themed recitals, and the Judges (Founder and Artistic Director, Louise Winter; President Dame Felicity Lott, Richard Suart and Sebastian Wybrew) presented the Awards as follows:
FIRST PRIZE FOR A SINGER
The Molly Townson Award £2000
was awarded to ELLEN PEARSON
FIRST PRIZE FOR A PIANIST
The Hope Gosse Award £1000
was awarded to ARCHIE BONHAM
BEST DUO PRIZE £500
was also awarded to Ellen Pearson and Archie Bonham pictured here with Wesley Stace, the son of Molly Townson. In a touching tribute to his mother, Wesley said that seeing his mother’s name in the biographies of the winners over the years would be ‘a very beautiful and appropriate way for my mother’s name to live on’.
Below: the winners with Dame Felicity Lott
RUNNER-UP PRIZE FOR A SINGER £1000
WAS AWARDED TO ANUSHA MERRIN
who was accompanied by Iwan Owen
BELOW: Anusha Merrin and Iwan Owen
RUNNER UP PRIZE FOR A PIANIST £500
was awarded to Jia Ning Ng (left) who accompanied Karla Grant.
AUDIENCE PRIZE FOR THE BEST SINGER
was awarded by the audience to
HARRISON ROBB who was accompanied by Catriona MacKenzie.
Dame Felicity Lott with Harrison Robb
Other finalists (clockwise from top left) included Nikki Martin (soprano); Harriet Cameron (soprano) with her duo partner Siyuan Xu; Karla Grant (accompanied by Jia Ning Ng), Francis Bamford (countertenor) with his duo partner Dominika Mak; and Esther Ersfield, who accompanied Nikki Martin.