RNCM announces winners of the Lucy Hale Award 2025
We are delighted to present the Lucy Hale Award championing and supporting disabled and neurodiverse students to two outstanding recipients in 2025.
Master’s students Ilana Tapper and Noa Nishizawa will both benefit from the £5,000 award, which was established in 2024 to honour Lucy’s life and work as a visionary young composer and mentor.
Ilana (pictured), whose principal instrument is viola, has hypermobility in her fingers and hands and requires splints to ensure that she is moving her joints correctly. While the NHS has been able to support her with plastic splints, she needs silver ring splints to play and practice more effectively, comfortably, and regularly, and for longer periods of time.
‘The one thing I’ve always wanted to do is to play viola, but my disabilities like to make it tricky,’ says Ilana. ’Whenever I find a new way of adapting how I play or work, it’s absolutely wonderful because things I’ve been working on become a lot more visible in my playing or suddenly become a million times easier. I’m excited to see where I can take my playing with the new splints and I’m really grateful for the support.’
Noa suffers from hearing loss in both ears; she has lost all hearing in her right ear and has moderate hearing loss in her left ear. Having purchased her hearing aids at great expense, she has been unable to buy her principal instrument, the baritone horn, and plans to use the award to do just that.
Passionate about demonstrating that people with hearing loss can have successful musical careers, and an advocate for other people with disabilities who are looking to enjoy a fantastic life in music, Noa says the award could not have come along at a more critical time: ‘
The Lucy Hale Award honours Lucy’s incredible achievements as a composer and mentor to disabled and neurodiverse artists and was established by her parents, Nicky Hale and John Mellor, and sister Ellie. 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 the inaugural associate composer with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s disabled-led ensemble Resound project and had been a composer in residence at the National Orchestra for All.
The inaugural Lucy Hale Award was presented in 2024 to Spanish pianist Gema Lu Cai – a fourth-year student specialising in music education who was diagnosed with a learning difficulty and ADHD during her time at the RNCM and used her £5,000 award to purchase her first piano.
The announcement is part of RNCM Disability Week, which runs from Mon 27 – Fri 31 Jan and features events exclusively by disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent artists, creatives, and researchers, including talks, performances, workshops, and demonstrations. Highlights include the Music for Parkinson’s concert of bespoke new music written in collaboration with people living with Parkinson’s (Thu 30 Jan, 6pm, free), Manchester Camerata with pianist Ethan David Loch (Fri 31 Jan , 8pm, £18/£12), a ‘relaxed performance’ Lunchtimes concert from the RNCM Brass Ensemble (Thu 30 Jan, 1.15pm, free), and a free online Research Forum re-evaluating approaches to understanding music and autism (Wed 29 Jan, 4.15pm).
29 January 2025
