UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 09 JUNE 2023
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) hosted a concert recently to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the RBC Weingarten Scholarship Programme, which supports piano, violin and voice alumni to study at RBC or in Budapest.
This scholarship programme, which has been funded by the Joseph Weingarten Memorial Trust since 1997, has enabled more than 80 alumni to benefit from further study at RBC or at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. Joseph Weingarten was born in Budapest in 1911 and studied at the Franz Liszt Academy. He moved to the UK in 1934 to launch his career as a concert pianist.
Joseph taught at Birmingham Conservatoire, and subsequently bequeathed funds – along with his wife Lilian – to enable student exchanges between RBC and the Liszt Academy. He specifically supported postgraduate study in piano, violin or voice, as well as in the Kodály teaching method.
The concert, which was supported by the Weingarten Memorial Trust, was attended by an array of former Weingarten scholars, RBC Principal Stephen Maddock, former Principals George Caird, David Saint and Professor Shirley Thompson, members of the Weingarten Trust, RBC staff and the Vice-Chancellors from India.
The Weingarten scholars who performed on Sunday were Alexandra Anuşcă (voice), Csenge Dósa (violin), Olga Eckert (violin), Elizabeth Haughan (piano), György Hodozsó, (piano), Anna Zsófia Richter (piano), George Rowley (piano) and Jessica Wise (voice).
Principal Stephen Maddock said: “This was a wonderful afternoon of music-making at the highest level. It was so nice to meet the students who have benefitted over the last 25 years from this extraordinary musical partnership between RBC and the Liszt Academy, and to hear so many of them too.”