Â鶹ŮÀÉ

On Wednesday the final of this year’s Â鶹ŮÀÉ’ Young Musician of the Year competition took place at Â鶹ŮÀÉ’ Prep. Adjudicated by Simon Wookey, Head of Instrumental and Vocal Music at St Helen’s School, Northwood, there were 21 Finalists, 11 from the Prep and 10 from Taylors’, with two boys performing twice in the Final (one from each school). During the preliminary rounds, adjudicated by Mr Couldridge (Â鶹ŮÀÉ’) and Mr Stuart (Â鶹ŮÀÉ’ Prep), there were a total of 83 entries from 74 boys.

he evening began with the strings class, in which we heard music by Hubay, Bach, and Telemann. The class was won by Alex Z. (MTP), who played Hubay’s Bolero. The woodwind class followed, with a diverse range of music, from Mozart to the meme song Rush E. It was the playing of the former that piqued the adjudicator’s interest, and Xiling W. (MTP) won this class. Next came the brass class, where Alexander B-T (MTP) fought off tough competition from Yugo F (Â鶹ŮÀÉ, U3rds) to win, with his deft performance of Greenwood’s The Acrobat. Rafferty S (Â鶹ŮÀÉ, 3rds) convincingly won his class, the percussion class, with Ray Davis’s You Really Got Me. The guitar class took us to many different places, with Zakir A.’s (Â鶹ŮÀÉ, 3rds) evocative Spice Trail, Adam H.’s (Â鶹ŮÀÉ, U3rds) dancing Sueno, Nathan I.’s (MTP) lyrical Musette, and Arman M.’s (Â鶹ŮÀÉ, 3rds) enchanting Nightfall.

In the end, it was Adam who took the prize for the class. The standout vocalist of the evening was Ethan D. (MTP), who rightly won the class with his interpretation of the classic song Somewhere over the Rainbow. The final class of the evening showed huge talent in all three pianists, opening with Kai T. (Â鶹ŮÀÉ, U3rds) playing Chopin’s fiendish Ballade No.2 in F. This was followed by Nostalgia by P. E. Wolf, played beautifully by Jayde L (MTP). The performances ended with Josh S.’s (Â鶹ŮÀÉ, U3rds) performance of the technically demanding Prelude in G# minor by Rachmaninoff. This final class, and the overall competition, was won by Kai T (Â鶹ŮÀÉ, U3rds).