Write a commentA seventeen year old Our Lady's student has won the title of The Soloist 2018.
Amber Leigh Dixon from Newry won the title in Sunday's final of the competition at The Mill Theatre, Dundrum Shopping Centre. Over 300 people entered online. Out of these, forty of Ireland’s most promising and talented young performers made it through to the semifinal on Sunday 12 August.
Amber is an A-Level student at Our Lady’s and a member of the Flynn School of Performing Arts where she receives tuition from Fiona Flynn.
Amber has made numerous appearances on stage in Musical Theatre performances. She has performed on Radio, on BBC Television.
Already this year, Amber won the very prestigious Girls U18 Vocal Solo, at the ESB Feis Ceoil, Dublin. The soloist was also the proud recipient of the Gilbert Award for ‘Best Female Singer’ at the 2018 AIMs awards for her role as Maria in ‘West Side Story
As her prize Amber will perform with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland to audiences of over 50,000 people during their arena tour in Spring 2019. Performances will be held at iconic venues including the Simmons Court Arena, RDS, Dublin; the Odyssey Arena, Belfast; the Echo Arena in Liverpool, Limerick University Arena and Waterford Institute of Technology Arena. In addition to these exceptional performance opportunities, Amber will also receive the coveted Soloist Trophy and a €1,000 cash prize.
Sharon Treacy-Dunne, CEO, Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland spoke of their delight at welcoming Amber to the CBOI Peace Proms Team "We are thrilled to be showcasing the outstanding talent of this young stellar performer, Amber Leigh Dixon, to audiences across Ireland and the UK."
The Finalists
From the Semi Final 12 performers were selected to go through to the final. Sarah Gordon, Dublin; Leah Kavanagh, Lucan; Emily Carrol, Bray; Rebecca, Emily & Orlaith Kelly (Classic Harmony Girls), Wicklow; Cobhla Surlis, Caven; Phoebe Dipple, Wexford; Aoife Goodison, Wexford; Sinead Cronin, Cork; Christopher Green, Lurgan; Woha Mcgerald Akeh, Galway; Sinead O’Donovan, Tipperary; and Amber Leigh Dixon, Newry.
Thanks
Concluding the Cross Border Orchestra representative added "All of the finalists gave outstanding performances and any one of them would have been a worthy recipient of the title. Huge thanks to our judges whose impossible task it was to select the winners: Greg Beardsell, Conductor and Music Educator; Phil Ferguson, Performer and Music educator; Patricia Treacy, Virtuoso Violinist; and Paul O’Callaghan, CBOI Director and performer; Liam Monagher, Violinist and performer."
The Cross Border Orchestra performed in Newry over St Patrick's weekend this year.
