Blackwater Valley Opera Festival established its annual €10,000 bursary award in 2020 to recognise outstanding promise in Irish classical music. The award was created through the support of a private benefactor. We extend our sincere thanks to Conor and Mareta Doyle for their continued commitment, which secures the BVOF Bursary Award from 2023 to 2027.
The winners are selected by the festival’s Artistic Director and Co Founder, Dieter Kaegi, who says: “the programme is in keeping with our mission to discover and support exceptional talent, helping to define a new future for Irish artists who have the potential to develop successful solo careers.”
Since 2021, Blackwater Valley Opera Festival has awarded forty three bursaries to emerging singers, musicians and creative professionals. A total of €184,500 has been directed towards training and development, supporting artists as they progress to leading conservatoires and international opportunities.
The 2026 bursary recipients are pianist Dida Condria and tenor Conor Prendiville, both of whom appeared at the 2025 festival. Dida, an Irish Romanian pianist, has already performed at Carnegie Hall and reached the semi finals of the 2025 Dublin International Piano
Conor Prendiville is one of Ireland’s finest up-and-coming tenors. Since graduating from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, he has performed on many stages at home and abroad. Some recent highlights include playing Sciortino in Rosetta Cucchi’s five-star production of Marco Tuttino’s La Ciociara at Wexford Festival Opera, as well as his time as a member of the Upper Austrian Opera Studio in Linz, Austria, where he performed Riamund in Kreutzer’s Melusina, Moser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Araldo in Handel’s Rinaldo, Lorenthy in Kálmán’s Ein Herbstmanöver and more.
Other highlights include Eisenstein in Merry Opera’s English tour of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Stadttheater Bad Hall, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicci at Wexford Festival Opera, and Beppe in Cork Opera House’s concert production of Pagliacci. During summer 2025 he performed the roles of Flute in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Blackwater Valley Opera Festival and Vogelsang in The Impressario at the Buxton Opera Festival. Upcoming engagements include Ruiz in Le Trouvère (the French version of Verdi’s Il Trovatore) at Wexford Festival Opera, Mozart’s Requiem with the English National Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Maynooth Choral Society.
“I am very excited and incredibly grateful to receive the BVOF Bursary Award 2026. Having performed at the festival for the first time in 2025 for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I am delighted to return to perform at the 2026 bursary recital in 2026. The BVOF Bursary will help me continue my musical development over the next year by funding coaching, lessons, travel and accommodation for auditions, and all the unseen costs that this crazy career entails. It is so thrilling to be recognised by the festival, and I can’t wait to perform there again in 2026.”
Conor, from Killorglin in Co Kerry, completed a Masters degree at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Lismore Castle in 2025.
Dida Condria has performed in venues across the globe such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Perth Concert Hall, and the National Concert Hall of Ireland. Dida began her musical studies at the age of six with Prof. Réamonn Keary at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2025, where she studied with Prof. Aaron Shorr. She is pursuing her MPerf on a full scholarship at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Prof. Vanessa Latarche, with the generous support of BVOF, Drake Calleja, and the Countess of Munster Trust.
A laureate of multiple international competitions, Dida was a Keyboard Finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition and winner of the BBC Walter Todds Bursary. She won 1st Prize in the Edinburgh Festival Concerto Competition, and 2nd Prize and the Audience Prize at the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Intercollegiate Competition in Birmingham. Dida was recently awarded the 2025 McCullough Bursary and the Charles Brennan Prize for the highest-placed Irish competitor in the triennial Dublin International Piano Competition. She was also awarded the 2025 Irish Heritage Music Bursary and the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival IH Bursary Award.
Dida has performed with numerous orchestras throughout the UK and Ireland and has had the pleasure of performing in prestigious festivals such as Madrid Atempo, the London Prokofiev Festival, the Walled City of Music Festival Derry, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, and Blackwater Valley Opera Festival. She also toured across the UK and Romania in a Rachmaninoff Anniversary Concert Tour representing the Royal Conservatoire in collaboration with the Purcell School of Music. With an affinity for contemporary music, she has been praised for her “incredible performances and spellbinding renditions” of Sadie Harrison’s piano works (University of York Music Press). A keen interest in free improvisation has led her to work closely with esteemed Estonian free improviser Anto Pett.
As the winner of the Dublin Philharmonic Society Prize and a member of both the Eversheds Sutherland Accelerator Academy and the DIPC William Finlay Programme, she has performed in prestigious venues across Ireland, as well as on Ireland’s national radio station RTÉ Lyric FM. Her musical journey has been inspired by masterclasses with renowned pianists such as Stephen Hough, Boris Berman, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Dmitri Alexeev, Paul Lewis, Noriko Ogawa, Steven Osborne, Simon Trpčeski, and Arie Vardi.
She regularly performs as a soloist across the UK and is an avid chamber musician, having performed with her piano trio at the American-Irish Historical Society in New York, and winning the RCS Dunbar-Gerber Chamber Music Cup 2024, RCS Mozart Concerto Prize, and Alex Menzies Prize for the most outstanding lieder accompanist. She regularly performs with various singers and instrumentalists across Ireland and the UK. Recent collaborations with Hastings International Piano have led to a passion for community music, music education, and wellbeing workshops.
“I am deeply honoured to be the recipient of the 2026 BVOF Bursary Award. This bursary comes at quite a pivotal moment in my life as I begin my Master’s studies at the Royal College of Music in London. I want to express my gratitude to BVOF, as this award allows me to fully concentrate on my musical development at the world’s leading conservatoire – nurturing my artistry and growing my career and contribution to the arts. This opportunity would not have been possible without their support and the generosity of my sponsors, Conor and Mareta Doyle. I wish to extend a heartfelt thanks to them for their kindness.
This festival is quite the leading light in the Irish musical calendar and is truly special in its innovation, high quality of artistry and music-making, and generous commitment to emerging Irish artists. I felt so warmly welcomed and encouraged by the festival when I first performed there earlier this year and look back on those fun memories fondly. I am very much looking forward to being an ambassador for the 2026 festival and to the exciting opportunities this award will provide.”
