The recipients of the 2024 Tait Memorial Trust Awards have been announced. This year, more than £80,000 ($154,947 AUD) has been awarded to support Australian and New Zealand artists seeking to study in the UK.

Kiwi oboist Noah Rudd has earned the Sir Charles Mackerras Chair Award. Supported by the Estate of Lady Mackerras, the Tait Memorial Trust and the NZ Link Foundation, the £8,000 ($15,500) prize funds a position with London-based training orchestra Sinfonia Smith Square.

Rudd was a 2023 Oboe Fellow with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonic and Orchestra Victoria. In 2021, he was awarded first place in the Australian Youth Orchestra Soloist Competition and second place in AYO’s Classical Music Competition.

The £5,000 Tait Scholar Award has been given to NSW oboist Zhen (Phoebe) Xu, awarded for study at the Royal College of Music.

Xu was the recipient of the Barbara Robinson Award and the Players Award at the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic’s 2021 NSW Secondary Schools Concerto Competition. She has also performed with the Australian Youth Orchestra.

Rebecca Rolle has received the £5,000 Tait John Frost Bursary Award, supported by...