Announcing the BTS Sheila Tracy Award 2020

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Announcing the BTS Sheila Tracy Award 2020

The BTS is proud to present our Sheila Tracy Award 2020 - Becky Smith!

Becky is Principal Trombone of the English National Opera, and previously held the position of Sub-Principal Trombone of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Cambridge in 1979, Becky studied the trombone with Christopher Mowat, and euphonium with John Clark at the Junior Guildhall School of Music & Drama from the age of 12 to 18. During this time she was also a member of the The National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain.

In 1998 Becky gained a scholarship for a place at the RNCM - Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and whilst studying there won the 2002 Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition Brass Prize, the Leggett Award, Terence Nagle Award and the Harry Mortimer Award. Becky is a founder member of Bones Apart Trombone Quartet.

She enjoys a busy freelance career performing with many of the UK's orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and all the BBC Orchestras.

She was guest soloist at the Guildhall Summer School and has also performed the Brahms Horn Trio with Alison Balsom OBE and Tom Poster at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. In that same concert she conducted the world premiere of Distraction by Jay Richardson featuring Alison performing alongside brass players from all over Cambridgeshire.

Becky has given masterclasses, coached the National Youth Orchestra Of Scotland and adjudicated the final of the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Award and the Help Musicians Awards. She also mentors students from the Royal College of Music on the Evolve Scheme with the English National Opera.

Recent highlights include performing Schoenberg's Gurrelieder with the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle at the BBC Proms. Future projects include performing Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with ENO and Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtensk with the Royal Opera House, as well as a tour of the Far East with the LSO.

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