Every year the Friends of St Cecilia’s Hall & Museum (FoSCHM) invite applications for Student Bursaries and Scholarships.
Bursaries
Bursaries are given to assist with costs of travel, research, conference attendance, and professional preparation in connection with any form of academic or organological study, or historically informed performance.
All Bursary holders report on how they have used their awards in our newsletter, Soundboard.
The FoSCHM bursary awards are made each year from a dedicated Bursary Fund which is sustained by donations, the Friends Edinburgh Fringe Festival concert series, and other fund-raising activities.
Awards will be offered first to students of Edinburgh University, then students of other Scottish institutions, and lastly to students registered elsewhere.
We are enormously grateful to the FoSCHM and members of the public, who help us to maintain our Bursary Fund by contributing donations. If you would like to contribute to the Fund, please email FriendsofStCeciliasHall@gmail.com.
Some of our past Bursary holders
I am grateful to have received a bursary from the Friends. It helped me to purchase my own baroque flute, which is especially valuable as I will be studying for a Masters in Performance at the Royal College of Music in 2025. Serenna MacLellan
Thanks to the support of the Friends, I was able to take part in a baroque violin masterclass with Emmanuel Resche-Caserta in Thiré, France. This greatly deepened my understanding of the fascinating relationship between the violin and the voice in Italian and French solo repertoire. Andrew Taheny
In 2023 I used the bursary to take baroque violin lessons and harpsichord accompaniment lessons. In 2024 I used the bursary to purchase a baroque violin bow, which has transformed my playing, allowing me to approach early music with greater authenticity and artistry. I am grateful to the Friends for their support, which has enabled me to grow as a musician and pursue my passion for Early Music. Elinor Haf
Thanks to the Friends I attended the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference in Munich in 2023. The conference introduced me to the latest developments in early music research and helped me forge links with musicologists across Europe, leading to further academic collaboration. David Coney
- £650 to Elizabeth Ford for the acquisition of a modern copy of a Renaissance flute to enhance her understanding of the development of the early flute and its music in Scotland. Her post-doctoral studies will give major focus to the iconography of the ceilings at Crathes Castle.
- £700 to Tom Wilkinson to help set up the pre-professional baroque group, the Kellie Consort.
- £650 to Brianna Robertson- Kirkland for attendance at a bel canto summer school in Dublin, run by Emma Kirkby.
- £700 to Eric Thomas, lute player, to allow him to attend the Urbino Early Music summer school for intensive lute instruction.
The Bursary sub-committee
The bursary sub-committee members decide on the allocation of the bursary funds.
FoSCHM Bursary sub-committee members
Prof Arnold Myers (Chair)
Prof Chris Kelnar
Dr John Kitchen MBE
Andrew Mackie
If you would like to contact a bursary sub-committee member, please email stceciliachair@gmail.com
Please do not contact committee members directly.
Scholarship
The Pamela Jackson Memorial Scholarship in Musical Instrument Research
The Scholarship commemorates former Chair of the Friends of St Cecilia’s Hall and Museum and University of Edinburgh alumna Pamela Jackson’s dedication to music, her association with St Cecilia’s Hall, and her legacy gift to the Friends of St Cecilia’s Hall and Museum.
The Scholarship funds one scholar biennially to full course fee and stipend. The scholarship is open to a global pool of scholars ready to develop a programme of research investigating aspects of musical instrument research in the broadest sense. The research project will have a musical instrument research question and/or performance at its core and will work actively with the internationally recognised musical instrument collection at St Cecilia’s Hall.
The outcome of the scholarship funding is expected to result in the award of an MScR in musical instrument research.
The Scholarship is advertised every two years, presenting a proposal for an appropriate research project based on the defined criteria.
The recipient of the award is invited to present a concert, lecture, or other public demonstration appropriate to their research at an event to be hosted by the Friends of St Cecilia’s Hall and Museum as well as submitting a report to be published in Soundboard.
Past Scholarship holders
Luke Whitlock 2022-2024
“Neglected Creatives: a portfolio of compositions exploring instruments made by women, accompanied by a public performance of these new works using the museum instruments for which they were composed”
Friends of St Cecilia's Hall & Museum 