28 March 2019
The festival was a two day event this year. On Tuesday 12 March, the Junior/Middle and Singing festival featured 14 instrumentalists and six singers. Our adjudicators were Annabel who is a high level violinist and pianist, and Karina, an experienced singer.
All boys performed confidently and with great musicality, but in the end first place was awarded to Toby in 6N for his piano piece, ‘The Avalanche’, with Arjun in 3S the runner-up, also on piano, playing ‘Night of the Tarantella’. The Debbie Rose Singing Cup went to Charlie in 8A for his beautiful rendition of ‘Poor Wayfaring Stranger’ which moved Karina to tears.
The Senior House Music Final took place the following day, and we were delighted to welcome Sophie Biddell, Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral School to judge the event.
The standard was extremely high as eight of our finalists were recipients of music awards to the senior school and Magdalen College School. The House Music Cup was presented to Nikhil for his highly spirited and expressive performance of the traditional Russian ‘Black Eyes’ on violin, accompanied, fittingly, by Ilya, our Russian piano teacher, with Leo C on French Horn and Daniel on piano in second and third place.
The two day festival was truly inspiring and a testament to the wealth of musical talent we have at APS.