2019 Music Competition Finals
This was a truly marvellous culmination of an astonishing fortnight of music making.
The individual competition, in its new guise, was a fantastic success: musicians excelling; extraordinary variety; and the full panoply of instruments on display, from drum kit to voice via woodwind, brass, keyboard, percussion and strings.
It takes a brave person to stand, alone, in front of your peers and elders, and perform. To perform brilliantly adds an impressive twist! To be judged… is intimidating, or could be. But under the wonderfully sympathetic, positive and watchful eye (and ear) of our expert adjudicator Mr Ben Parry (thank you, sir, for your skilful and heartfelt judgments) every one of our contestants must have felt appreciated, guided, and enriched.
But winners there must be, and, acknowledging as he did that on a different night, with a different choice of piece, in front of a different adjudicator things might well have been otherwise, Mr Parry chose the following for particular commendation:
Beginner Class:
1st place: Charlotte (flute – No Dice – Paul Hart)
2nd place: Esme (marimba – Menuet in G – J S Bach)
3rd place: Isaac (drum kit – Barracuda – Heart)
Intermediate Class:
1st place: James (cello – The Gadfly – Shostakovich)
2nd place: George (double bass- America – Bernstein)
3rd place: Ellen (oboe- Gavotte – Boyce)
Advanced Class:
1st place: Lewis (tuba – Concerto for Bass Tuba – Vaughan Williams)
2nd place: Jenny (violin – 3rd Violin Sonata – J S Bach)
3rd place: Billy piano – Sonata No. 4 – Beethoven)
Writing this, I notice only now that nine instruments and eight composers are represented, five boys and four girls – how’s that for diversity and a true reflection of the glorious spectrum music offers at Woodbridge?
Mr Parry was full of praise for the performers; and Mr Turner added his thanks both to them and to their near-hundred peers who took part in the competition, to all the staff who have supported them on the way, and of course to Mr Parry. What an evening. What a finale!
