Latest News

BIRLEY CENTRE HOSTED INTERNATIONAL PIANO STARS OF THE FUTURE

Jamie Cochrane - Winner of the 2023 Norah Sande Award

Jamie Cochrane presented with the Norah Sande Award Winner's cheque by Richard Deering

A weekend of outstanding piano recital performances resulted in Royal Academy of Music graduate Jamie Cochrane being awarded the 2024 Norah Sande Award at the Birley Centre in Eastbourne. Jamie won a cheque for £2000 and opportunities to play with the Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra in their 20th October concert and a recital at the Hinchingbrooke Arts Centre. A previous Essex Young Musician of the Year winner, Jamie has already performed at the Royal Albert Hall and the Sheldonian, Oxford and played concertos with the Colchester Symphony Orchestra and the de Havilland Philharmonic. Jamie has just finished his Masters at the RAM where he was also awarded a DipRAM for outstanding performance in a postgraduate final recital.

The audience was treated to twelve varied programmes on Saturday 6th July which led to detailed speculation about which three finalists the adjudicators might choose. The prestigious panel, Richard Deering (Chairman), Graeme Humphrey and Michael Young – all keyboard exponents of international repute, chose Jamie, fellow RAM masters’ student Yuk Yu Yang who had recently won the Steinway Youth Piano Competition and Firoze Madon, an undergraduate at Royal College of Music who was a BBC Young Musician of the Year keyboard finalist.

The three finalists played a full recital programme on Sunday 7th July incorporating classical, romantic and contemporary pieces the following day. Jamie’s winning weekend repertoire included Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No 3, Bach’s Prelude & Fugue in E Major, Rachmaninoff’s Etude-tableau in Eb minor, Hough’s Piano Sonata No 4 and Granados "Los Reqiuebros”.

"The Birley Centre is proving to be a very fine concert hall for the region and we are looking forward to hosting our twentieth Award finals there next year” said Brian Knights, the Award’s Chairman. "We have a loyal audience of Sussex concertgoers who enjoy hearing such talented young musicians on the cusp of an international performing career. This year the standard was exceptionally high and the discussions over tea very lively about the outcome but all agreed that Jamie Cochrane was a worthy winner and look forward to the chance to hear him again in Eastbourne this Autumn.”

 

Runner-up Yuk Yu Yang received a cheque for £1000 and third place Firoze Madon received a cheque for £500.

Previous winners of the Award have been performing in top concert halls around the world and achieving great accolades. Details of the 2025 Award and entry form will shortly be available on www.sande-award.co.uk. This Award has been enabled by a substantial bequest from the late Norah Sande, in memory of her Grandmother, Alice Mary Caffen.

Sussex concertgoers will be able to enjoy Julian’s talents again when he will be the soloist at the Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Autumn concert. This honour for the Norah Sande Award winner is in addition to a cheque for £2000.