Mills Williams Junior Fellowship

The Mills Williams Junior Fellow receives an award that makes a substantial contribution to their course fees and living costs. Holders of this award are considered members of the team of junior fellows and will be expected to participate fully in RCM life.

The Mills Williams Junior Fellowship is held for one year and is only available to students on the Artist Diploma (ArtDip) in Performance programme.

This fellowship offers a bespoke, tailored programme of performance and artistic development opportunities to help launch the most talented instrumental students as soloists and chamber musicians.

All fellows are expected to develop musical and communication skills by undertaking further intensive study, working with students internally and doing all they can to raise the profile of the RCM externally. They play a full and active part in the musical life of the RCM as well as functioning as RCM ambassadors. They have full use of the RCM Library with its wealth of material and work in close contact with the Creative Careers Centre, the RCM’s centre for professional skills and publicity services.

Current Mills Williams Junior Fellow

Misha Kaploukhii, Piano

Misha Kaploukhii is a rising pianist of exceptional promise, currently studying for a Master of Performance at the Royal College of Music under the guidance of Professor Ian Jones. He previously completed his undergraduate studies at the RCM and is a graduate of the Moscow Gnessin College of Music, where he studied with Mikhail Egiazaryan.

Misha’s artistry has been recognised through array of awards and scholarships. He is a recipient of the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra Conservatoire Scholarship (2024–26), a Musicians’ Company Lambert Scholar supported by the Maureen and Harold Adams Scholarship, and a Hattori Foundation Senior Award (2025–26). Additional support has come from an ABRSM Scholarship, the Drake Calleja Trust, and the Eileen Rowe Musical Trust. His career is further championed by the Keyboard Charitable Trust, the Razumovsky Trust and the Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation.

A formidable competition pianist, Misha has won the RCM Concerto Competition twice (2022 and 2025), as well as the Hopkinson Gold Medal at the Chappell Medal Piano Competition. He has also secured both First and Audience Prizes at the UK Sheepdrove Piano Competition and was awarded the Grand Prix at the Sicily International Piano Competition.

Misha has worked closely with some of the most distinguished musicians of our time, including Claudio Martínez Mehner, Dmitri Bashkirov, Jerome Lowenthal, Stephen Kovacevich, Konstantin Lifschitz, and Dame Imogen Cooper.

His concerto appearances in the UK have already demonstrated both range and maturity. At Cadogan Hall, he has performed Rachmaninoff’s First and Brahms’s Second Concertos with the YMSO under James Blair, as well as Liszt’s Second Concerto with the RCM Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Partington.  In October 2024, Misha was invited to work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, stepping in as soloist for a rehearsal of Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto.

As part of his 2025 RCM Concerto Competition success, Misha performed Brahms’ Second Concerto with the RCM Philharmonic Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins.

He has performed widely across the UK and Europe, with appearances in Italy, France, and Serbia, and at venues including LSO St Luke’s, Smith Square Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Razumovsky Recital Hall, Leighton House and Steinway Halls in both London and Milan. In September 2023, he performed Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances at the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival, accompanying Fiona Maddocks in a discussion of her book Rachmaninoff in Exile.

Highlights of the coming season include solo recitals for the Royal Mile Piano Series in Edinburgh, the Hay Music Festival, and the Three Choirs Festival.