The Blackwater Valley Opera Festival has announced the 2021 Bursary award winner.

This year the festival announced that flutist Amy Gillen and bass-baritone Rory Dunne received the award which is made up of €10,000.

“Amy and Rory are most deserving recipients of our 2021 bursary award, and we are looking forward to welcoming them back to perform at the Festival later this year. The bursary demonstrates our passion for providing funding and performance opportunities to wonderful young artists and I have no doubt that Amy and Rory will be terrific ambassadors for BVOF over the coming years,” Artistic Director Dieter Kaegi said in a statement.

In response to their wins Gillen noted, “I am delighted to be the 2021 recipient of the BVOF Bursary Award. The BVOF is exceptional in how it champions and showcases international and emerging artists to highly appreciative audiences. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the BVOF sponsors and the BVOF team. I appreciate your generosity, particularly at this crucial juncture in my career.”

Dunne added, “I am honored and humbled to be the recipient of this hugely generous bursary. In what has been a very difficult year, this money will help me to continue growing as an artist. For the future, it opens up opportunities for me to travel to audition in opera houses abroad and to gain every advantage available to me. This expansion and development of my career is made possible by generosities such as these. It is so very appreciated.”

The BVOF Bursary Award is committed to supporting emerging Irish performers and helping them grow their careers in the performing arts.