Congratulations to Orla for winning these awards and thanks to all here who made a point of voting for her! It was evident from the applause at her winning that there were some dedicated Orla fans in the audience! Lucky few who were there live!
The presenter, IMA's Bob Reeder, mentioned Orla as being a past IMA award winner and how all the nominees in the top harpist category were fantastic harpists! This is noteworthy, because, as we have seen, they are sparing in their comments about the nominees, doing little more than reading the names of the nominees and calling out the winners. I suspect they want to avoid any sign of favoritism in their comments and wouldn't want to single out some, but not all of the nominees for praise.
Next year, Orla will be disqualified to compete in the categories which she won for one year, but is eligible to compete in other categories. Now let's see....