St Swithun’s school musician gains composing scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music

18 year old St Swithun’s student Pernille Faye has gained a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. She will study Classical Composition under the tutorage of an established composer and undertake theory and aural lessons to improve her musicianship and support her composing.

Pernille was selected for a scholarship following a rigorous process comprising a series of interviews, a composition exercise, and the submission of a composition portfolio which included a larger scale work for chamber orchestra. As a Royal Academy of Music Scholar, she will receive an award of £3,000 per year towards composition expenses such as computer software and books.

Alongside her GCSE and A level studies at St Swithun’s in Winchester, Pernille has been working with The Martin Read Foundation for the last three years. As one of their Awarded Young Composers she has received composition mentoring and commissions for a variety of pieces.

It was an instrumental day course when she was 15 which inspired Pernille, who is also a gifted scientist, to pursue a career in music. She decided to try composing at the suggestion of her clarinet teacher and has been composing ever since. One of her recent pieces was Rhapsody for Gibbons, for clarinet duet and gibbon song which she wrote and recorded in collaboration with Monkey World, where she is an adoptive parent, to raise awareness of gibbon conservation.

Pernille said: "I am really looking forward to everything I will learn at the Royal Academy of Music. I am also hugely grateful to the Martin Read Foundation. The support and experience which they have given me has been key in helping me gain this opportunity."

Head of St Swithun’s Jane Gandee added: "Pernille has inspired us with her creative and witty compositions. The whole school has enjoyed her work and we were proud to use one of her pieces as a soundtrack on our website. We wish her success at the Royal Academy of Music and look forward to seeing her music career flourish beyond the school gates."