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A new initiative, the Annie Sankey Bursary, has been launched to benefit Cardiff Singer competitors.

The bursary is to help the singers with a contribution towards some of the costs of their career development. Each of the 25 singers who came to Cardiff in June has been offered the sum of £500 to help defray some of the expenses that hit performers at the start of their careers.

Getting a career launched can be an expensive business. There are all sorts of hidden costs - including coaching, buying music and concert clothes and paying to travel to and take part in audition sessions.

Annie Sankey was a civil servant from Blackpool who was a fan of the competition and although she never came to Cardiff, she always enjoyed watching it on television. She wanted her legacy to be used to help talented singers in the competition, which had given her so much pleasure for many years.

The bursary was first announced on 4 June 2009, as Menna Richards, Director, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Cymru Wales, welcomed the competitors for the start of the competition. Since then, the details of how the bursary will be administrated have been worked out and the singers are now able to put in their applications.