The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) announced the recipients of the 2026 Lucy Hale Award, which provides recognition and financial support for disabled and neurodiverse music students.
The winners of this year’s award are Lisa McCloskey, Charlie Garstang, and Isaac Middleton. McLoskey is pursuing a Master of Education degree at RNCM, while Garstang and Middleton are both undergraduate students in the college’s department of Popular Music.
The three students will share this year’s award fund, which amounts to £5,000, and will invest the award money in purchasing musical equipment that will enable them to pursue their studies while managing their respective needs.
“Music has always been the sphere in which my disability did not define me,” said McCloskey, who aims to focus her research on advancing research into music performance and disability.
“The less steps I have to take in order to write or record an idea, the easier I find it, and the more time I have to work on developing the music before needing to rest and recover,” said Middleton, emphasizing the award’s impact on his ability to continue his musical education.
The RNCM’s Lucy Hale Award was inaugurated in 2024 and is named after former RNCM student Lucy Hale, a composer who passed away at the age of twenty-six of a neuromuscular condition with which she was born.
The award fund was established by Lucy’s parents, Nicky Hale and John Mellor, as well as her sister Ellie, all of whom were recently honored by the RNCM for their continuing support of the institution and its students.