The Nova Scotia Talent Trust

The Nova Scotia Talent Trust (NSTT) will recognize the 2012 Scholarship and Special Award recipients at 2:00pm on Monday, December 17^th at Government House in a ceremony hosted by His Honour Brigadier-General the Honourable J.J. Grant, CMM, ONS, CD (Ret’d), Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.

Created to support the career of contralto Portia White more than 65 years ago, the NSTT has continued to support emerging Nova Scotian artists as they pursue their studies toward establishing professional careers in the arts.

One such gifted artist is visual artist Charley Young, who will receive the $1,500 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Artistic Achievement, the NSTT’s highest honour for a student in any discipline. She is also the recipient of the $1,000 Charlotte Wilson-Hammond/Visual Arts Nova Scotia Award. Young, from Halifax, is currently studying for her Master’s in Fine Arts at the Maine College of Art, in Maine, USA.

As well, two new Special Awards will be given out for the first time this year. The first, the RBC Emerging Artist Award, was established in 2012 by the RBC Emerging Artist Fund. It will be awarded, if merited, to the recipient who, among all others, has completed initial studies and shows exceptional commitment and professional potential as an artist, with a preference for recipients studying film/media, literary and visual arts, followed by the other disciplines. In its inaugural year the $1,500 award will be received by film production designer Lauren Spalding from Head of Jeddore. Spalding is also the recipient of the $1,000 Shelagh Mackenzie Award and is finishing her thesis film at the American Film Institute (AFI) Conservatory in Los Angeles.

The second new Special Award, the Tietje Zonneveld Award, has been made possible through a generous donation to the NSTT by Tietje Zonneveld. The $1,000 award, to be awarded to the pianist who shows the greatest artistic potential and excellence, will be received by Halifax’s Jenna Richards, who is currently finishing her final year at the University of Toronto where she is studying for her Bachelor of Music in Performance.

The other Special Award recipients, each of whom demonstrates exceptional potential to become professional artists, are listed below:

Singer Rosanna Harris (Wolfville) is the recipient of the $1,500 Portia White Award for voice and is currently studying for her Masters of Music Solo Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. (Award sponsored by the Humanities in Medicine Program, Dalhousie University.)

Flamenco dancer Francesca Nardi (Halifax) is the recipient of the $1,100 Robert George Jackson Award for dance and has recently been studying with Amor de Dios-Ciclo Dedicado a la Formacion Completa del Baile Flamenco in Madrid, Spain. (Award supported by the Jackson family.)

Jazz singer Maureen “Reeny” Smith (Dartmouth) is the recipient of the $1,200 Maritime Association of Teachers of Singing (MATS) Award for voice and is currently studying Music Arts at the Nova Scotia Community College (Award supported by MATS.)

Pianist Jocelyn (Lan-Fen) Yang (Bedford) is the recipient of the $1,000 Ray Simpson Award for music and is currently studying privately with teacher Lynn Stodola. (Award supported by the Simpson family.)

Saxophonist Evan Mounce (Newport, NS) is the recipient of the $750 Kenneth Elloway Award for classical performance and is finishing the final year of his Masters of Music in Performance (Saxophone) at University of Toronto. (Award supported by the Elloway family.)

Actor Wayne Burns (Truro) is the recipient of the $1,000 Theatre Nova Scotia Award and is currently enrolled in his second year at the National Theatre School in Montreal where he is studying acting. (Award sponsored by Theatre Nova Scotia.)

Ballet dancer Erin Atkinson (Amherst) is the recipient of the $600 Janice Merritt Flemming Award and is currently studying ballet at the Royal Winnipeg School of Ballet. (Award supported by the Flemming family.)

Jazz pianist Andrew Boudreau (Truro) is the recipient of the $1,000 Chico Berardi Award and recently studied privately with teacher Jan Jarcyzk and is currently completing his Bachelor of Music degree at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University, in Montreal. (Award sponsored by Music Nova Scotia.)

The Nova Scotia Talent Trust application deadline date for Spring/Summer study is March 1, 2013 and for Fall/Winter study it is May 1, 2013.