The Beatrice Huntington Award for Cellists

Previous Beatrice Huntington Award Winners

2022

Will Archibald

Will Archibald is a 14-year-old cellist from the south of Scotland. He started playing the cello at the age of 6 and now attends Langholm Academy where he studies with Alex McQuiston.

Will has been part of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland as well as local youth orchestras in Dumfries and Galloway and Cumbria, where he has performed in many local venues both as part of an ensemble and solo.

Over the years he has played in masterclasses with Hannah Roberts, Karine Georgian, Richard Harwood, Benedict Kloeckner, Christophe Croisé and Robert Max.

Currently, Will plays on a cello made by Lockey Hill c. 1780, kindly made available through the Benslow Music Instrument Loan Scheme.

Jalayne Mitchell

Jalayne does not have a typical story of an aspiring classical musician. She started cello lessons at age 16, and was self-taught for 5 years prior. It is self-evident that she has had to work extremely hard for her place in classical music. For a long time, she did not have the means to take cello lessons, and her home life made it incredibly difficult to practice. 

Through hard work, the support of a few generous benefactors, and more hard work, she has begun carving out her space in classical music. She is the recipient of a German cello made in 1890, loaned to her by the Carlsen Cello Foundation in Seattle, Washington, and is presently attending the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on a private scholarship, studying under Dr. Alison Wells.

She has been principal cellist for multiple RCS symphonies, one of which was the opening night of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Glasgow (COP26).  She has played solo and chamber music concerts (including works by Shostakovich, Janacek, Beethoven, and Bach), performed side-by-side with the Scottish Ensemble and the Brodsky Quartet, and is due to perform with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the spring. She is a regular attendee at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, held in Keene, NH, and has previously attended Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival (2018, 2020). In spring of 2021, she had the incredible opportunity to take a masterclass with Steven Isserlis. 

Jalayne is so grateful to the people at The William Syson Foundation for this prestigious award. It is her hope to continue on this journey, to break down the barriers of the classical music world, and eventually open doors for other minorities to be a bigger part of this genre of music.

2021

Madelyn Kowalski

Joint Senior Award Winner

Cellist Madelyn Kowalski grew up on a small island in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. She is currently a masters student with Alison Wells at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), where she also completed her BMus degree. She is the recipient of an ABRSM International Postgraduate Scholarship, and awards from the William Syson and Hattori foundations and Help Musicians. In 2018 she was 2nd prize-winner of the Concours International de Violoncelle ‘Tremplin’ in Paris. She has won many other prizes at the RCS and was awarded 2nd prize in the 2019 Cavatina Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition in London. In 2019 as part of a small ensemble, she premiered a work written and conducted by Sir James MacMillan for HRH Prince Charles’s 70th birthday. Last year she gave the Scottish premiere of Errollyn Wallen's cello concerto with the RCS orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, Madelyn has performed many recitals with her duo, including recording streamed concerts for BBC Radio 3 and Chamber Music Scotland. She has attended festivals and masterclass programs including IMS Prussia Cove and Hellensmusic in the UK, and Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, and Sitka in the USA, and has had masterclasses with cellists including Steven Isserlis, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Ralph Kirshbaum, Raphael Wallfisch, David Geringas, and Antônio Meneses. She has performed side-by-side with Scottish orchestras and has collaborated in chamber music projects with Joseph Swensen, and members of the Brodsky Quartet and the Hebrides Ensemble. Madelyn is a huge lover of animals, and back at her childhood home, her beloved German Shepherds, Treu and Elsa, are always waiting patiently for her to visit.

Hugo Eedle

Joint Senior Award Winner

Hugo is a 22 year old cellist from Dumfries, Scotland. Hugo started the cello aged 10, and at 14 successfully auditioned to Chethams school of Music, where he studied with Nicholas Jones, and then went on to study as a scholar with Thomas Carroll at the Royal College of Music, supported by The Dewar Arts Award. He currently studies at the Hochschule für musik und Tanz in Cologne, with Thomas Carroll.

Hugo has taken part in masterclasses with Karine Georgian, Guy Johnson, Robert Cohen, and Francis Guten, and Torleif thedéen, and has also played in Chetham’s symphony orchestra at venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Milton Court, and Dukes Hall. He has also performed many concerts at Chetham’s, in the Royal College of Music, and in Cologne, and is very dedicated to chamber music, having performed with his quartet at the RNCM, Barratt Due Musikkinstitutt in Norway, and the Bridgewater hall.

Layla Ballard

Junior Award Winner

Layla Ballard is a 17-year-old cellist from Edinburgh, Scotland. In September she will be starting her studies at the Royal College of Music in London with teacher Melissa Phelps. She has been part of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years and has played in high profile venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Konzerthaus in Berlin and Queens Hall in Edinburgh as both an orchestral player and soloist.

This year she won the annual St Mary’s Music School Director’s Recital Prize Competition and was also a finalist of the school's Lord Clyde Concerto Competition. She won the Leonid Freidman Chamber Music prize as a member of the St Mary’s String Quartet in both 2020 and 2021. In the past year she has played in masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Nicolas Aldstadt, Gautier Capuçon, Leonid Gorokhov, Natasha Brofsky and Hannah Roberts.