Cellist Adam Joyce (18), a sixth year student at Castleknock Community College in Dublin,<\/strong> has won the \u20ac5,000 top prize at the 2025 Top Security Frank Maher Classical Music Awards<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>Ireland\u2019s largest classical music competition for secondary schools<\/p>\n Adam was one of six finalists at the competition night on Friday 24th October 2025 in the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin. Lyric FM presenter Marty Whelan was master of ceremonies for an evening of outstanding teen talent, at which Adam performed two pieces \u2013 Waldesruhe (Silent Woods), Op.68, No.5 <\/em>by composer Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159ak and Danse du Diable Vert (Dance of the Green <\/em>Devil) by composer Gaspar Cassad\u00f3.<\/p>\n Commenting on his win, Adam said \u201cI am absolutely delighted to have won, it\u2019s still sinking in, and I plan to use my prize money to fund auditions for music colleges in Germany and the Netherlands over the coming year. The Dvorak composition is one of the most beautiful pieces of music for the cello. I heard it last year for the first time and it was wonderful to be able to perform it at these Awards.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The Awards were created in 2001 by Top Security chairman Emmet O\u2019Rafferty to honour the memory of his late teacher, Fr Frank Maher, who taught music at Castleknock College in Dublin.<\/p>\n Emmet said\u00a0\u201cOn behalf of Top Security, we extend our heartfelt congratulations to this year\u2019s winner, cellist Adam Joyce, and to all our exceptionally talented finalists for their outstanding performances on the night. Fr. Frank Maher\u2019s love of classical music continues to inspire young musicians, and it is an honour for us to support these gifted students as they take the next steps in their musical journeys. This competition not only celebrates their dedication and artistry but also opens doors to opportunities that can help shape their futures in music. We wish them every success as they continue to share their remarkable talent with the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Last year\u2019s winner, pianist Ai Lin Sun from Dublin, gave a guest performance on the night. She is studying for her Bachelor in Music (piano) at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) alongside her Bachelor of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.<\/p>\n The Awards\u2019 aim is to showcase exceptional young musical talent in Irish schools and are open to sixth year post-primary students of strings, woodwind, brass and piano. The \u20ac5,000 top prize must be used to attend a recognised place of tuition, a course of study in Ireland or abroad or on a purchase necessary for the development of their talent.<\/p>\n Other winners have used the prize to further their studies at prestigious institutions that include the Juilliard School, New York, MUK Vienna, Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, Hochschule f\u00fcr Musik und Theater (HfMT) Hamburg and the Royal College of Music in the UK.<\/p>\n The other five finalists each received a \u20ac300 bursary.\u00a0 They were Sam Monedero Egan<\/strong> (18), Violin,\u00a0 Castleknock Community College, Dublin; Clare Healy<\/strong> (18), Piano, St. Leo\u2019s College, Carlow; Kian Lee<\/strong> (17), Violin, Wesley College, Dublin; Ben Greenham Taylor<\/strong> (17), Trumpet, Schull Community College, Cork and Yuhan Xue<\/strong> (16), Piano, Colaiste Einde, Galway<\/p>\n The judging panel was Dr Gerard Gillen, emeritus professor of music at NUI Maynooth, international classical pianist Veronica McSwiney and international violist Wolfgang Klos, professor of viola at the University of Music and the Performing Arts, Vienna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Castleknock Student Wins 2025 Frank Maher Classical Music Awards Cellist Adam Joyce (18), a sixth year student at Castleknock Community College in Dublin, has won the [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":769,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1178","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankmaherclassicalmusicawards.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankmaherclassicalmusicawards.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankmaherclassicalmusicawards.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankmaherclassicalmusicawards.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankmaherclassicalmusicawards.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankmaherclassicalmusicawards.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1179,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankmaherclassicalmusicawards.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1178\/revisions\/1179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankmaherclassicalmusicawards.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankmaherclassicalmusicawards.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}