RNCM Announces Winners of 2026 Lucy Hale Award

The RNCM is delighted to present the 2026 Lucy Hale Award championing and supporting D/disabled and neurodiverse students to three outstanding recipients.

The £5,000 fund will be shared by classical flautist Lisa McCloskey and two Popular Music students of keyboards and guitar, Charlie Garstang and Isaac Middleton, and help each of them to purchase essential equipment.

L-R: Charlie Garstang, Isaac Middleton, and Lisa McCloskey.

Master of Education student Lisa is a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy and will invest her award in an adaptive head joint for her flute which will reduce the chronic pain in her hand and wrist that is severely limiting her playing and
practising.

Lisa, who joined the RNCM in September 2025 on its highly specialised new degree for music teaching professionals, has faced physical and structural barriers to music education and was forced to postpone her long-held ambition of completing a performance diploma following master’s study in 2018. However, she adds that ‘music has always been the sphere in which my disability did not define me’ and now plans to support the advancement of research into music performance and disability.

First year bass guitar student Charlie had lived with the debilitating impact of Crohn’s disease since he was 14 and will use his award to purchase two new instruments: a Shruti Box and a Tanpura. Second year keyboards student Isaac will invest in a home studio (an Ableton Push 3) and high-quality headphones to reduce the negative impact of his chronic fatigue.

Speaking about the importance of the award, Isaac says: ‘The less steps I have to take in order to write or record an idea, the easier I find it, and the more time I have to work on developing the music before needing to rest and recover.’

L-R: Rhiannon McKay Smith (Director of Development), Professor Linda Merrick CBE (Principal), Ellie Mellor, Nicola Hale, John Mellor, and Bethan Ward (Head of Corporate and Regular Giving)

The Lucy Hale Award was first presented in 2024 in memory of Lucy, who was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disability at a young age, graduated from the RNCM with both undergraduate (BMus) and postgraduate (MMus) degrees, and was set to begin a PhD studying assistive technology in music. She was also the inaugural associate composer with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s D/disabled-led ensemble Resound project and had been a composer in residence at the National Orchestra for All. The fund was established by her parents, Nicky Hale and John Mellor, and her sister Ellie, who were all recently conferred with honorary awards by the RNCM in acknowledgement of their ongoing support for students at the College.

3 February 2026