Divine Simbanegavi and Alexander Kwon in the Holywell Music Room

This year’s Mendl-Schrama Prize in Music was held on 31 January in the Holywell Music Room. There has been an explosion of interest in the prize and, consequently, there were 24 applicants: one singer and piano duo, three pianists and 20 singers. This is a far wider field than ever before, spanning nine different colleges. Univ supplied three candidates, all of whom deserve a mention here. Teresa Yu (soprano), Edison Fu (piano) and Max Rozenfeld (baritone) all acquitted themselves well in this very strong field.

The winner of this year’s £1000 prize is Ben Gilchrist, a baritone from The Queen’s College. Ben will give his recital during Hilary Term 2027, on a date to be announced. He is in his final year at Oxford and will be taking up a place on the Master’s course at the Royal College of Music starting in September. There was no second prize this year, but a special Trustees’ Prize of £250 was awarded to Max Rozenfeld in recognition of his continuing charity work. Special mention was given to Matilda Bates, soprano (The Queen’s College), Jack Bowley, tenor (Magdalen), Heechan Chae, piano (Pembroke), Harriet Turnbull, soprano (Merton), and Anneka Vetter, mezzo-soprano (Oriel).

In the evening, after a long day of auditioning, the panel were delighted to listen to Divine Simbanegavi, last year’s winner, accompanied by Alexander Kwon, who gave a captivating recital entitled Love’s Journey. This performance transported the audience from love’s beginnings through passion and betrayal to loss and finally death. Along the way, Divine sang music by Purcell, Mozart, Massenet, Debussy, Bizet, Britten and Bridge in an assured and entertaining programme of professional calibre. Congratulations to her, to pianist Alexander Kwon, and to Anneka Vetter, this time playing the viola, who joined Divine for two of the pieces.

We were all very sad not to have Heleen Mendl-Schrama, our patron, with us for the day, and we wish her a speedy recovery after she suffered a very nasty fall earlier in the year.

Thanks must go to the panel: Teresa Cahill, soprano; Julian Jacobson, pianist; Bruce Harris, Trustee; and Leonardo Raznovich, Trustee. The panel was chaired by Giles Underwood, Director of Music at Univ and Professor of Singing at the Royal Academy of Music.

Published: 9 March 2026

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