Sussex Young Musician of the Year takes to the stage

Chairman Kate Kent said: “This enchanting concert, performed by our choir and orchestra, will be made even more special by a remarkable soloist – Riya Hamie, our Sussex Young Musician 2024/25. A gifted cellist from Brighton, Riya is currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music and is fast emerging as a musician of immense talent.

“Immerse yourself in the grandeur of Baroque choral and instrumental masterpieces, featuring: Handel’s majestic coronation anthems full of power and beauty, including Zadok the Priest Vivaldi’s Gloria – a radiant and uplifting choral classic. Riya will captivate you with selections from Bach’s Cello Suite No 2.”

Tickets are sold via Ticket Source by the Friends of Holy Trinity Church and are available at £25 or £20 for members of the Friends.

Winning the Sussex Young Musician of the Year competition 2024 was a lovely chance to reflect on all that she owes to Sussex for Riya.

Riya captivated the judges with her performance of the final movement of Dvorak’s cello concerto, securing a £2,000 prize, which will support her participation in competitions both in the UK and internationally. Riya's sister, Berniya Hamie, a pianist studying at the Royal College of Music, was named the runner-up and received a £1,000 prize. Additionally, Tom Law, a tenor, was awarded £500 to assist with his musical studies.

Riya said: “I always like coming back to Sussex and the Brighton area to play and I do that as much as I can. I saw a Facebook post about the competition, and as I identify most of my musical journey so far to the fact that I was born in Sussex, it just seemed like a really good fit as a competition for me to enter.

“I was born in Brighton and I went to school here. I went to a few different schools, but the last two years at BHASVIC (Brighton, Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College) were really great. It had a really good collegey feel and it was very inspiring to be within the music department where everyone involved really wanted to be there and to play music. In my class I had a lot of incredible jazz musicians and I was just really inspired by the whole musical environment. The teachers were super supportive and understanding of everything that I wanted to do and did everything they could to help.

“I finished my first year studying (last summer). It has been really exciting. It is been really lovely, and I think it was less daunting for me than it would have been for some other people because I happened to know a lot of the people that were with me beforehand which eased the transition.

“I started the cello when I seven or eight. I started the piano first and I wanted to play a second instrument. I had my heart set on the saxophone but they told me that my hand was not big enough. I thought maybe I would just play the clarinet which as an instrument is pretty similar and then my front teeth fell out! And then my parents said ‘Why don't you just try the cello?’ as my sister was already learning the cello at home and the teacher was coming around anyway. And I'm very happy with the way it has worked out.

“It is the physicality of it. You feel so connected to the instrument. It is almost like you are hugging the instrument and the sound just flows. You feel connected through just one finger or through your whole body. You feel so connected with the sound.”

For the competition Riya was up against her own sister: “And that felt odd more than anything. We don't usually find ourselves competing against each other seeing as we actually spend so much time playing with each other but the third finalist was also someone we knew, a friend of ours and we just had a lot of fun.

“Winning has been very motivating for me. Over the last (few) years I've been doing a lot of committed chamber music and finding my feet in terms of starting out on a career and so it is really nice to be recognised for the progress I have made but also really motivating to make you continue to make that progress but also it’s a really nice chance to reflect on just how important the Sussex area has been to my musical education and development. It's really through the music community in Sussex that I've met so many people in the area that have contributed so much to my musical education.”