ROSL Music Competition awards solo singers’ prize

Baritone James Atkinson has been awarded the second section final prize of this year’s Royal Over-Seas League’s (ROSL) Annual Music Competition, claiming the second of four spots in the competition’s Gold Medal Final at Wigmore Hall.

Atkinson’s programme, composed of works by Finzi, Faure, Schubert and Bellini, beat the section final’s three other soloists last Tuesday (22 Feburary) in the ROSL’s Princess Alexandra Hall: soprano Cassandra Wright, mezzo soprano Annabel Kennedy and soprano Mimi Doulton.

The soloists performed in front of a panel of adjudicators including soprano Gillian Keith, ROSL Arts artistic director Geoff Parkin, tenor Nicky Spence, and Sue Spence, director of Askonas Holt who chose Atkinson to go onto compete for the Gold Medal and a further £15,000.

James Atkinson is a graduate of the Royal College of Music Opera Studio. He has won prizes at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards, the Somerset Song Prize and the Mozart Competition and will this year make his debut with Welsh National Opera as Masetto in Don Giovanni. Atkinson will also participate in the Ludlow English Song Festival and will perform Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall in May.

ROSL Annual Music Competition section finals continue each Tuesday evening at Over-Seas House in London, with the Gold Medal Final taking place on 7 July at Wigmore Hall.

The ROSL Annual Music Competition grew out of a series of concerts inaugurated in 1947 and became competitive in 1952. A list of past competition winners can be found here.

You can find more information about the ROSL Annual Music Competition at the ROSL website.