Violinist Junhyung Kang and cellist Shirley Lu each receive €2,000
The finals of the Royal Irish Academy of Music’s (RIAM) John Pollard Competition for Young String Players took place 4 March at the Whyte Recital Hall in Dublin, Ireland. Two John Pollard Awards are given annually: one to a violinist or violist, and one to a cellist or double bassist.
This year’s winners were violinist Junhyung Kang and cellist Shirley Lu, each receiving €2,000. Both performed movements by Bach, as well as the first movements of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto no.1 respectively.
The other finalists were violinists Ruby Creighton-Kowalsky and Andrei Trif, cellist Ryan Keogh and double bassist Sean Lee.
Fifteen-year-old Kang has studied with violinist Alan Smale, the former concertmaster of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, since he began learning the violin at the age of five. Since 2024, he has also taken lessons with RTÉ Concert Orchestra leader Mia Cooper at RIAM. Kang was most recently the overall winner of Castleknock Music Festival’s string competition.
Born in 2011, Lu began learning the cello with Miriam Roycroft before taking up lessons with Martin Johnson at RIAM. She has won first prize in the junior categories for both the 2024 and 2025 Feis Ceoil competition, and was recently appointed principal cellist of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland.
This year’s jury comprised Deborah Kelleher, Seamus Doyle and Elaine Clark.
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