Marie follows in Sheku's footsteps

Monday 23 July 2018

RCM Junior Department flautist Marie Sato has won the RPS-Duet Young Instrumentalist Prize, alongside pianist Noah Zhou. The prize, which offers £1,500 prize money and a professional recital at a UK music festival, was won by cellist and BBC Young Musician winner Sheku Kanneh-Mason in 2016.

Eighteen year old Marie is currently learning with Simon Channing and Gitte Marcusson in the RCM Junior Department, where she has been a student since 2009. She has won numerous prizes including the Gordon Turner Memorial Competition and Peter Morrison Concerto Competition and given recitals across the UK. A member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for four years, Marie became principal flute at the age of fifteen. She was a Woodwind category finalist in both the 2016 and 2018 BBC Young Musician Competition.

This summer, Marie will take part in the International Orchestra Institute Attergau run by the Vienna Philharmonic, before beginning her undergraduate studies at the RCM with Adam Walker. Marie commented: ‘It was an honour to take part in the RPS-Duet competition and I am absolutely delighted to have won! I am excited for a busy summer ahead and to continue my studies at the Royal College of Music where I can develop further as a musician.’

The RPS-Duet Prizes for Young Instrumentalists and Composers were founded through Ensemble Philharmonic – an initiative launched by the RPS and Duet Group that offers opportunities to students at secondary schools to experience and explore the classical music profession. Alongside tickets to concerts, masterclasses, talks and project work, the RPS Prizes are two of the ways in which Ensemble Philharmonic is supporting the next generation of talented musicians.

For more information, please visit the Royal Philharmonic Society website.