Nova Scotia Talent Trust awards over $32,000 to 2015 Special Award Recipients at today's Special Awards Ceremony

The Nova Scotia Talent Trust (NSTT) recognized the 2015 Scholarship and Special Award recipients at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, December 14 at Halifax Central Library in a ceremony attended by His Honour Brigadier-General the Honourable J.J. Grant, CMM, ONS, CD (Ret’d), Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.

Created to support the career of contralto Portia White 71 years ago, the NSTT has continued to support emerging Nova Scotian artists as they pursue their studies toward establishing professional careers in the arts.

One such gifted artist is Canning choreographer and dancer Aliah Schwartz, who will receive the $1,500 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Artistic Achievement, the NSTT’s highest honour for a student in any discipline.  Schwartz is currently in her second year studying for her BFA in Contemporary Dance at Concordia University in Montreal.  


Presented for the first time in 2013, the two 2011 Canada Games Young Artist of Excellence Awards, valued at $10,000 each, will be awarded to any recipient, regardless of age, from any artistic discipline, who best exemplifies the qualities embraced by the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, that of the utmost commitment, promise, exceptional technique, talent and the highest achievement of excellence, someone who demonstrates the passion and drive to become a professional Nova Scotia artist in their field of discipline. These two awards will be awarded every December until 2022 and are the legacy of the 2011 Canada Games Young Artists of Excellence Program.

The two $10,000 awards in 2015 will be received by Amherst ballet dancer Erin Atkinson and visual artist Isaac Fresia from Oxford.

Erin Atkinson (Amherst) is currently in her seventh year studying ballet at the Royal Winnipeg School of Ballet in Winnipeg.




Isaac Fresia (Oxford), who recently graduated with his BFA from NSCAD, is in his first year at Dalhousie University, studying for his Bachelors of Environmental Design, followed by his Masters in Architecture.







The other Special Award recipients, each of whom demonstrates exceptional potential to become professional artists, are

Visual artist Sarah MacLeod (New Minas) is the recipient of the $1,000 Charlotte Wilson-Hammond/Visual Arts Nova Scotia Award and just finished her BFA degree (Interdisciplinary) at NSCAD, and is currently participating in the NSCAD Community Studio Residency Program at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design in Sydney. (Award supported by Charlotte Wilson-Hammond and Visual Arts Nova Scotia.)


Singer Lindsay Connolly (Halifax) is the recipient of the $1,500 Portia White Award for voice. She studied voice this past summer at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy and is in her final year at Dalhousie University (Fountain School of Performing Arts) studying for her BMus in Vocal Performance. (Award supported by the Music-in-Medicine and Humanities-HEALS Program, Dalhousie University.)

Ballet dancer Niamh Perrins (Wolfville) is the recipient of the $1,500 Robert George Jackson Award for dance and studied ballet at the National Ballet School in Toronto this past summer. (Award supported by the Jackson family.)







Writer Holly Rice (Halifax) is the recipient of the $1,500 RBC Emerging Artist Award for literary arts and is studying fiction in her first year of a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at The New School in New York City. (Award supported by RBC Emerging Artist Program.)






Theatre director Laura Vingoe-Cram (Dartmouth) is the recipient of the $1,000 Theatre Nova Scotia Award for theatre and recently completed her MA in Classical and Contemporary Text (Directing) at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, Scotland. (Award supported by Theatre Nova Scotia.)

Flautist Emery Van de Wiel (Antigonish) is the recipient of the $1,000 Raymond Simpson Award for music and is in his third year studying for his Bachelor of Music in flute at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland. (Award supported by the Simpson family.)




Classical guitarist and composer Adam Clarke (Kingston) is the recipient of the $750 Kenneth Elloway Award for classical performance. He has recently finished his Bachelor of Music degree in Contemporary Music Composition and Classical Guitar at Acadia University, and this past summer took part in the Iserlohn Guitar Symposium/Festival in Germany. (Award supported by the Elloway family.) 



Ballet dancer Erin Atkinson (Amherst) is the recipient of the $1000 Janice Merritt Flemming Award and is currently in her seventh year studying ballet at the Royal Winnipeg School of Ballet. (Award supported by the Flemming family.)







Singer and songwriter Andrew Machum (Halifax) is the recipient of the $1,000 Chico Berardi Award and is currently in his second year studying Vocal Performance, Music Engineering and Production at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. (Award supported by Music Nova Scotia.)

Classical pianist LaLa Lee (Halifax) is the recipient of the $1,000 Tietje Zonneveld Award and is studying privately with Professor Lynn Stodola in Halifax. (Award supported by Tietje Zonneveld.)








In addition to the Special Awards announced today, the Nova Scotia Talent Trust gave out scholarships to 49 recipients earlier this year. 

The NSTT’s scholarship application deadline date for Spring/Summer study is March 1, 2016 and for Fall/Winter study it is May 1, 2016.

The NSTT is supported by the 2011 Canada Games Legacy Fund, RBC Foundation, Music Nova Scotia, Visual Arts Nova Scotia, Theatre Nova Scotia, Debut Atlantic, immediaC, the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council, Norex,ca, NSTT Foundation, Dalhousie Music in Medicine HEALS Program, Support4Culture, Halifax Municipality, Business for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, and Arts Nova Scotia.  The NSTT is pleased to work in partnership with the province to develop and promote our cultural resources for all Nova Scotians.