19 May 2023
On Wednesday evening, we welcomed Sean Fitzpatrick, Director of Music at Abingdon Prep School, as our adjudicator for this year’s Junior Solo Competition – an event that welcomes any pupils who have not yet taken their grade 6 examination to compete for the cup.
We welcomed eight promising young musicians to perform, including two oboists (Oscar Hanna and Irfan Sampurno), a clarinettist (Toby Williams), two pianists (Jamie Williams and Laurence Maggs), a violist (Kwame Abayateye), a bassist (Ethan Wong) and a trumpeter (Felix Price) in a varied programme.
All the students gave performances of a very high standard and Mr Fitzpatrick commented that the standard was uniformly high – and gave some useful feedback for future development.
The 2nd and 3rd prizes were shared between Laurence Maggs (Schmitz’ Progression One) and Irfan Sampurno (Tchaikovsky’s Land of Desolation, Land of Mists), but first prize, by a close margin of just one mark, went to Felix Price for his lovely performance of the slow movement of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto.
We are delighted that the future of Abingdon’s music looks very bright indeed in the hands of such a fine bunch of young musicians. We offered thanks to all who performed.
