The 2004/2005 Fulbright-Chester Schirmer Fellowship has been awarded to Tarik O'Regan. The award is given to a young composer, who has the opportunity to spend time in the United States, extending artistic expertise and experience, and taking an important step in developing an international reputation. In response to the award O'Regan said, 'I'm both thrilled and honoured. It is the intrinsic artistic freedom that is granted within the framework of such a longstanding and historically distinguished academic programme that I believe makes the fellowship so unique. The prospect of moving to Columbia University in Manhattan to complete my opera Heart of Darkness (a collaboration with visual artist Tom Phillips) is one that would have been wholly unrealisable without the support of this wonderful award.'
