Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition Announces 2025 Finalists

Each winner of the event’s four solo categories will compete for the Gold Medal on July 18, 2025

Created in 1952, the Royal Over-Seas League’s (ROSL) Annual Music Competition is divided into six sections: Wind, Brass, and Percussion; Keyboard; Singers; Strings; String Ensembles; and Mixed Ensembles. 

This year, the competition was open to musicians aged 18 to 30 from Japan and South Korea as well as the USA, all EU and EEA countries, Switzerland, plus all current and former Commonwealth countries.

The four solo category winners are oboist Ewan Millar, soprano Madeleine Perring, pianist Rafael Kyrychenko, and violinist Mabelle Park. Each of them will receive £5,000 and the chance to compete for the Gold Medal and First Prize of £15,000 (including professional development opportunities). 

More awards included the Phillip Jones Memorial Prize for an outstanding brass player, which went to trombonist Meggie Murphy. 

The Audrey Strange Memorial Prize went to tenor Michael Lafferty; pianist Joseph Howson won the Kerr Memorial Prize; and the Len Lickorish Memorial Prize was awarded to cellist Hugh Mackay. 

Winners for the ROSL’s £10,000 String Ensembles and Mixed Ensembles Award included the Regency Quartet, comprising violinists Park and Olwen Miles, violist Jamie Howe, and cellist Ellen Baumring-Gledhill. 

The £5,000 award for collaborative pianists and £3,000 ROSL Overseas Award is yet to be announced.

Concert engagements offered to the prizewinners also include those with UK festivals including Brighton, Buxton, Lichfield, Kings Lynn, Lake District Summer Music, Newbury Spring Festival, Cambridge Summer Music, and St George’s Bristol. ROSL ARTS has also organised concerts and tours for prizewinners in Australia, Canada, Malta, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Antigua, and Zimbabwe.