ONE TO WATCH: Kildare's Anna Varga makes final in top music competition

Cellist Anna Varga (18), a sixth-year student at Celbridge Community School, was a finalist in the 2023 Top Security Frank Maher Classical Music Awards, Ireland’s largest such competition for secondary schools.

Lyric FM presenter Marty Whelan was master of ceremonies for an evening of outstanding teen musical talent at which Anna performed two pieces, Prayer (from Jewish Life) by composer Ernst Bloch and Requiebros by Gaspar Cassado.

Anna was presented with a €300 bursary as were the other finalists, Eve Donohoe (17), Loreto College, Wexford (violin), Ava Duffy (17), Colaiste Ide, Dingle Kerry (piano), Christopher Furlong (17), Colaiste an Spioraid Naoimh, Bishopstown, Cork (Piano), and Lucia Murphy (18), Limerick Tutorial College (violin).

The winner of the €5,000 top prize was pianist Joe O’Grady (17) a sixth-year student at Gonzaga College, Ranelagh in Dublin.
The Awards were created in 2001 by Top Security chairman Emmet O’Rafferty to honour the memory of his late teacher, Fr Frank Maher, who taught music at Castleknock College in Dublin.

Emmet said, “Congratulations to Anna on reaching the finals of this very high-level competition. Father Frank Maher was an inspiring mentor in many areas of school life, but he was especially passionate about classical music. I know that he would have been delighted and proud of all the beautiful performances we heard on the night. I wish Anna and her fellow competitors the very best of luck wherever their talents take them.”

The awards’ aim is to showcase outstanding young musical talent in Irish schools and are open to sixth year post-primary students of strings, woodwind, brass and piano. The €5,000 top prize must be used to attend a recognised place of tuition, a course of study in Ireland or abroad or on a purchase necessary for the development of their talent.

Past winners have gone on to attend some of the world’s most prominent music colleges, including the Juilliard Performing Arts Conservatory in New York City, Conservatoire Nationale Superieur de Musique et de Danse Paris, Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, the Royal Academy of Music in London and Music and Arts University (MUK) in Vienna.

The judging panel was chaired by Dr Gerard Gillen, emeritus professor of music at NUI Maynooth with Dr Kerry Houston, head of academic studies at TU Dublin Conservatory of Music and Drama, international classical pianist, Veronica McSwiney and Brian O’Rourke, former principal clarinettist with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.