Violinist Bella Correia picked up the first prize at the Bermuda Philharmonic Society’s inaugural Young Artists Concerto and Composition Competition on Sunday.

Ms Correia, 11, who studies at the Menuhin Foundation, won a $500 award and will now feature as a soloist in the society’s Rising Stars concert in March, performing Accolay Concerto No 1 in A Minor.

First place in the composition category went to Dylan Jeffrey, 15. His piece, La Lune á Midi, for solo piano, will be performed at the society’s Art of Music chamber music concert at the Masterworks Museum in April.

Two runners-up in the concerto competition were Prince Domingo, 13, a viola student through the Menuhin Foundation, who performed the first movement of Concerto in C Minor by JC Bach/Cassadesus, and Odin Flanagan, a piano student at the Bermuda School of Music, who played the second movement of Beethoven’s Concerto No 5 Emperor.

Kate Kayaian, the president of the society, said the organisation is dedicated to the dual mission of holding live classical music events around the island and nurturing and supporting the musical growth of Bermuda’s young people.

Ms Kayaian said: “We have been the stewards of the Jeffrey Tankard Student Scholarship and Bursary awards for many years, and are thrilled to add this new annual competition for our advanced composers and instrumentalists.

“Participation in competitions such as this not only provides valuable performance experience here in Bermuda, it prepares them for the types and levels of competitions they will find abroad.

“Sunday’s competitors showed up like pros and were quite impressive. Every single performer was well prepared. They played their extremely complex pieces from memory, and with both sensitive musicality and technical prowess.

“There is certainly no shortage of musical talent here in Bermuda. These students have set the bar very high in this first year, which, given their young ages, was exciting to see.”

The Bermuda Philharmonic’s Spring Concert will take place at St John’s Church in Pembroke on March 16 and 17. Tickets will be available soon on the BPS website here.