Pictured above from L-R are Mark Jennings (FMR Station Manager) with the six finalists Claire de Kok; Zoe Mudiga and Marco Maritz; Jeffrey Armstrong; Myles Roberts and Sakhile Humbane. Photos appear courtey Wouter van Warmelo

The FMR Trust was established to provide scholarships, bursaries or awards for students studying for a performance diploma or degree in music. The competition is open to all music students in the Western cape / South Africa and a number of leading institutions are represented in the competition. Awards are made in two categories: Classical and Jazz. The value of the 2015 bursary is in the amount of R30 000 for each category, with R20 000 allocated to the top candidates and R5000 to each of the other two finalists.

This year, the three finalists selected in the Jazz category were from the South African College of Music: Zoe Modiga (vocalist), Claire de Kock (saxophone) and Marco Maritz (Trumpet and fluegelhorn). Claire de Kock, who obtained a BMus in Jazz Studies in 2014, was the overall winner in this category for her performance of Dat Dere by Bobby Timmons, Jazz Crimes by Joshua Redman and Arriving Soon by Eddie Vinson. In the Classical Category, Sakhile Humbane beat two other finalists Myles Roberts (flute), Jeffrey Armstrong (violin) and Sakhile Humbane (flute) for his performance of the adagio movement from JS Bach’s Sonata in E-minor BWV 1034 and the Fantasy on Themes from Der Freischutz by Paul Taffenel. Sakhile is currently a second year Bachelor of Music student at the SACM.
 
Claire and Sakhile each received R20 000 and the runner’s up each received R5000, kindly donated by the Nussbaum Foundation.