THE first scholarships in memory of a Bethesda music teacher who died in a car crash have been awarded.
Ben Muskett, aged 25, was head of music at Llanidloes High School in Powys and taught piano at Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias centre in Caernarfon.
Pianists Gwenno Morgan, of Bangor, and Cathryn Jenkins, of Llanidloes, were awarded the £100 scholarships.
The award had a bittersweet taste for Gwenno, as Ben was her piano tutor for the first five years of her musical studies.
She said:“It means such a lot to me to be awarded this new scholarship, and for the very first time.”
Ben died in January 2011, when his car left the road during the journey to his house in Llanidloes from his family's home in Bethesda.
International pianist and scholarship committee member Iwan Llywelyn Jones congratulated the winners.
He added: “The Ben Muskett Scholarship is a way to pay tribute to the young man who inspired so many of his pupils and to keep his name alive in Canolfan William Mathias and in Llanidloes.”