Applications for 71st Ferrier Competition in 2026 now open

71st Kathleen Ferrier Competition: 2026


Preliminary Rounds: Feb 26th–March 1st
Henry Wood Hall, Trinity Church Square, London SE1 4HU

Semi-Final: Tuesday, April 21st, Wigmore Hall, London W1U 2BP
Final: Friday April 24th, Wigmore Hall


Winners of the 2025 Ferrier Awards

the 70th Kathleen Ferrier Competition in 2025

The winners of this year’s competition
were announced on
Friday 25th April 2025 in Wigmore Hall
as follows:

1st Prize: Lily Mo Browne, Mezzo-Soprano
2nd Prize: Philippe Durrant, Tenor
Ferrier Loveday Song Prize: Ellen Pearson, Mezzo-Soprano
Help Musicians Accompanist’s Prize: Francesca Lauri

2024 Competition Results

The Final of the Competition took place in Wigmore Hall on Friday, 26th April 2024. At the end of the evening, David Syrus, Chair of the Jury, announced the winners. The other members of the Jury were Graeme Broadbent, Christopher Glynn, Susan Gritton, and Ruby Philogene.

All photographs below are by Emma Brown.

WINNERS OF THE 2024 COMPETITION

2024 Winners

L to R: Madeline Boreham (Second Prize) Matthew McKinney (First Prize) Charlotte Jane Kennedy (Ferrier Loveday Song Prize) Firoze Madon (Help Musicians Accompanist’s Prize)

FIRST PRIZE

Matthew McKinney
Matthew McKinney, Tenor

(accompanied by Roelof Temmingh, Piano)

Scottish tenor Matthew McKinney is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and will sing with the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus in 2024. He recently recorded Gastone (La traviata, OperaGlass Works) and Rodolfo (La bohème, Robin Norton-Hale’s feature, produced by Finite Films) and in 2023 performed Luigino (Il viaggio a Reims) and Rustighello (Lucrezia Borgia) for ETO. In 2022, he sang Damon (Acis & Galatea, Ryedale Festival) and covered Henrik (A Little Night Music, Opera North), having sung the role in 2021 for Buxton International Festival. At the RCS Matthew won the Norma Grieg French Song Competition and RCS Governors’ Recital Prize.

SECOND PRIZE

Madeline Boreham
Madeline Boreham, Soprano

(accompanied by Francesa Lauri, Piano)

Madeline Boreham is currently studying for her Master’s degree at the Royal College of Music where she is the Kiri Te Kanawa Scholar and is generously supported by the Josephine Baker Trust and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. Her opera work includes Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni Tenorio), La Princesse (L’enfant et les sortilèges) and Valencienne (The Merry Widow). She was a 2023 Young Artist with Opera Holland Park, singing Mother (Hansel and Gretel) and sang Countess (Marriage of Figaro) with Westminster Opera. She is a Samling Artist and recently performed alongside Sir Antonio Pappano and the RCM Symphony Orchestra, performing 4 Strauss songs.

FERRIER LOVEDAY SONG PRIZE

Charlotte Jane Kennedy
Charlotte Jane Kennedy, Soprano

(accompanied by Francesa Lauri, Piano)

Soprano Charlotte Jane Kennedy is in the second year of her Master’s at the Royal College of Music studying with Janis Kelly and Simon Lepper, having previously studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. Highlights at the RCM include Maturina/Gazzaniga’s Don Giovanni Tenorio, La bergère and La chouette/Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Venus/Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. Last summer Charlotte performed the roles of Shining One and Branch-Bearer in Vaughan Williams’s The Pilgrim’s Progress with British Youth Opera. Charlotte is a Leverhulme Arts Scholar supported by the Robert McFadzean Whyte Award and is also supported by the Munster Trust and the Josephine Baker Trust.

HELP MUSICIANS ACCOMPANIST’S PRIZE

Firoze Madon
Firoze Madon, Piano

Firoze Madon is currently a second-year undergraduate student at the Royal College of Music in London, studying piano with Professor Dmitri Alexeev, where he is generously supported by the Robert Avery Scholarship and the Kendall Taylor Scholarship. He regularly collaborates with singers and has performed in numerous song projects at the RCM, recently winning the Alasdair Graham Pianist Prize at the 2024 Lieder Competition. Firoze was a Keyboard Category Finalist in BBC Young Musician 2022 where his performance was broadcast on BBC Four and Radio 3.