The National Concert Hall Announces Co. Offaly Soprano Deirdre Higgins and Co. Kerry Composer Harry O’Connor as Winners of its Bernadette Greevy Bursary and Jerome Hynes Young Composers Award for 2024

The National Concert Hall (NCH) is delighted to announce the winners of its Bernadette Greevy Award and Jerome Hynes Young Composers Award for 2024. Irish Soprano Deirdre Higgins from Co. Offaly who won the Bernadette Greevy Bursary was awarded €5,000 and a recital at the NCH while Irish composer Harry O’Connor was the overall winner of the Jerome Hynes Young Composers Award 2024. He was awarded €2,500 and the commissioning of a new work to be premiered at the NCH.   

From Co. Offaly, Soprano Deirdre Higgins is a member of the Irish National Opera Studio, having joined in 2023. She has also worked with Wexford Opera Festival and performed in venues right across Ireland. Earlier this summer she made her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) at the NCH as a soloist in NSO Summer Lunchtime Concert series.  

Harry is an Irish composer from Co. Kerry who graduated with a Master’s in Music (Composition) from the University of Oxford, having earned his undergraduate from MTU Cork School of Music.   He has had his works performed at concerts in Ireland and the UK. His 'Fantasy for Piano Solo' was selected for the final round of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra’s 2020 Call for Scores in Los Angeles, USA. In 2023, he won the 2023/24 Irish Heritage Composition Bursary with his piece ‘Dpitych: Two Winds’ for solo piano and earlier this year his piece 'Summer Idyll' was premiered by the Castalian String Quartet at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford, UK. In September, he undertook the artist residency at the Fish Factory Creative Centre in Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland. 

Robert Read, CEO of the National Concert Hall said: “Both awards support and showcase Ireland’s burgeoning musical talent, providing opportunities for performance and for new works to be recognised and rewarded. Celebrating and fostering such talent is part of the National Concert Hall’s remit and a key function of the NCH Learning and Participation programme, which seeks to promote access, appreciation and enjoyment of music for all. I would like to congratulate Deirdre Higgins and Harry O’Connor on winning their respective awards and we wish them both well in their careers. Our thanks to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media for their ongoing support of the NCH and our initiatives”.   

The Jerome Hynes Young Composers Competition Award was established in the name of Jerome Hynes, who was the first managing director of Wexford Festival Opera, later becoming its chief executive and former board member of the National Concert Hall, Business 2 Arts, and the West Cork Chamber Music Festival amongst others.   

Previous winners of the Jerome Hynes Young Composers’ Competition are: Robin Haigh (2023); Anselm McDonnell (2022); Timothy Doyle (2020); Kevin Terry (2019); Christopher Moriarty (2018); Robert Coleman (2017); David Coonan (2016); Eoghan Desmond (2015); Alex Dowling and Amanda Feery (2014); and Emma O’Halloran (2013).    

The Bernadette Greevy Bursary is awarded by the NCH in honour of the late Irish mezzo-soprano Dr. Bernadette Greevy and is kindly supported by The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Ms. Greevy was a highly influential singer and educator. In addition to her own performing career, she was the founder and artistic director of the Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival, and further supported student singers through her masterclasses and work as Artist in Residence at the Dublin Institute of Technology.    

Previous winners of the Bernadette Greevy Bursary Award are: Clare Quinn (2023); Kelli-Ann Masterson (2022); Sarah Richmond (2021); Susie Gibbons (2019); Sinead O’Kelly (2018); Sarah Brady (2017); Padraic Rowan (2016); Roisín Walsh (2015); Gemma Ní Bhriain (2014); Jennifer Davis (2013); Rachel Kelly (2012);  Aoife Miskelly (2011); Gavan Ring (2010).