Justin reaches final of prestigious Maher Awards
Seventeen year old Justin O’Hagan from Ravensdale, was one of only six young musicians and the only one from Louth to reach the finals of the 2019 Top Security Frank Maher Classical Music Awards.
With a €5,000 top prize, it is Ireland’s largest such competition for secondary schools. Justin plays the piano and performed two pieces on the night; ‘First Movement from Sonata in F Minor’ by Beethoven and ‘Sinfonia No.6 in E Major’ by Bach.
Celebrated musician and songwriter Phil Coulter acted as master of ceremonies for the evening as Justin and the other finalists competed in front of a live audience at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin to win the top prize of €5,000, which was won by cellist Michael Murphy (18) from Presentation Brothers College in Cork.
Justin, a sixth year student at Colaiste Ris, was presented with a €300 bursary by Emmet O’Rafferty, chairman of the Top Security Group.
He has studied with Professor Anthony Byrne at the Royal Irish Academy of Music since 2016, and has been awarded a scholarship at the Academy for the past two years for the piano, and has also been a recipient of the High Achievers Award for both piano and cello.
He is no stranger to success at competitions, including the Dublin Feis Ceoil where he was runner-up in the Claude Biggs competition in 2018 and by winning both the Fritz Brase (sight-reading) and Kitty O’Callaghan cup with Aimee Banks in 2019. He has also been highly commended in the Dorothy Stokes and Junior Concerto competitions. He studied full time in a third-level course in RIAM during his transition year in school, taking classes such as composition and performance. He has participated in Baroque, jazz and orchestral ensembles, performing in the Helix, the National Concert Hall, and Christ Church Cathedral. Last summer, he was invited to play the piano in the National Gallery in Dublin. Justin has attended masterclasses with Teresa Terrisan and John O’Conor.
The Awards were created in 2001 by Top Security chairman Emmet O’Rafferty to honour the memory of his late teacher, Fr Frank Maher, who taught music at Castleknock College in Dublin. The Awards’ aim is to showcase outstanding young musical talent in Ireland and are open to sixth year post-primary students of strings, woodwind, brass and piano.
MC Phil Coulter said, ‘In my career I have shared the stage with some world class musicians, from James Galway to Henry Mancini, but there was something very special about the six young finalists that evening. They simply blew me away! Bursting with talent, passion and energy they are all at the threshold of an exciting journey. The experience of the Frank Maher Awards will be invaluable to each of them and, in the case of previous winners, open the door to an international career.’
The judging panel this year were Dr Kerry Houston, head of academic studies at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, classical pianist Veronica McSwiney and Brian O’Rourke, head of programming for the National Symphony Orchestra.