The winners of the annual awards given to students on the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland jazz course have been announced for 2022.
Bassist Ewan Hastie, from Kirkcaldy, has won the Mark McKergow Prize for Jazz Improvisation and drummer Chun-Wei Kang, from Inverness, has received the George Duncan Prize for Jazz Composition. Both of these awards come with a cash sum of £300.
In addition to these, the Alan McAuley Jazz Award, which comprises a certificate and $5000 (five thousand dollars), this year goes to Edinburgh-born saxophonist Sean Megaw, who has graduated from the course with first class honours.
This is an award designed to help with Career Development and is given at the discretion of the Head of the jazz department, Special External Assessors, and External Examiners, to a musician or group of musicians in their final year. The purpose of the award is to finance recording, promotion, touring and travel and Sean Megaw plans to use it to record and release his first album.
Tommy Smith, head of jazz at the RCS, said.
These are all worthy winners who are being rewarded for their hard work, diligence, and creativity. Previous winners have included the pianist Fergus McCreadie and saxophonist Matt Carmichael, who have both gone on to sign prestigious recording deals and to represent Scotland and the RCS across Europe. I’m confident that our three award winners this year will go on to be great adverts for our course.