COMPETITIVE FESTIVAL

COMPETITIVE FESTIVAL

Prizewinners' Concert at Hylands School

25.11.11

This annual festival of music and drama has now clocked up fifty-one years in the County Town, and this sampler concert gave some flavour of the breadth and quality of the entries.

Max Saunders gave a strikingly emotional monologue – a young American making an impassioned, frustrated phone call home to Mum. And Lucy Aitchison contributed an amusing recital of an Ahlberg poem.

Musically, the highlights included Emma Harris, a tiny violinist playing Bach with amazing tone and confidence, and Anthony Williams' toe-tapping Cream Soda piano solo.

The young vocalist Abbie Ward sang, unamplified, with a simple piano accompaniment, the Alan Menken Disney classic Colours of the Wind. Pure magic.

The evening began with Chelmsford Young Strings – a training orchestra for primary age performers – and ended with Elm Green School choir with the Snoopy anthem Just One Person.

The guest speaker was Peter Cross, whose long career has been built on inspiring young musicians. He reminded winners, performers and supporters of the importance of celebrating live music, and urged everyone to get practising for 2012 !

CHELMSFORD COMPETITIVE FESTIVAL

Prizewinners' Concert at the County High School

27.11.09

Two choirs book-ended this year's Prizewinners' Concert.

First, the New Hall School Chamber Choir, directed by Andrew Fardell, with Benjamin Britten and Eric Clapton, and at the end of the evening, Funky Voices, under the inspirational Sandra Colston, with a lively Goodbye to Love, followed by Lily Allen's hit Mr Blue Sky.

In between, the usual amazing variety show: a challenging piano study by Kenneth Leighton, superbly played by Lara Griffin, a poem by Roald Dahl, confidently spoken by nine-year-old Abbie Ward, two impressive jazz musicians, James Ling-Lock on piano with Oscar Peterson, and Gus Brown on sax with a number made famous by Coleman Hawkins, Louis Bellson's The Hawk Talks. Two very young violinists: Louis Loze-Carey with the catchy Fiddle Tune, and Caroline Penn with a Handel Hornpipe. Two promising singers: Jessica Hope with Roger Quilter's fast and furious setting of Shelley's Love's Philosophy, and Tara Gulrajani, who gave us a stunning Chorus Line number.

And in an affectionate nod to the Palace of Varieties, mother and son duo Tim and Nancy Leake charmed their way through Irving Berlin's Couple of Swells, suitably attired in tatty top hat and tails.