The Popular Song 15 & Under 18 proved to be an excellent class, with such confident and in some cases truly emotional performances. Everyone in this class received a Distinction, but there were a few that just shone a little brighter today. One for me was Ivy Botzenhardt, who performed Ariana Grande's 'Almost is Never Enough'. Elizabeth said she felt this was a little slow, but I disagree, I didn't feel this dragged at all, and I was most impressed by Ivy's developing vocal range, and her ability to control her voice within her fabulous use of riffing. For me, I thought Ivy was one of the ones who really delivered a song in the popular music idiom. Riffing is hard, but there is a trick to it - you need to become a little bit obsessed with practicing them, break them down really slowly and get to know know exactly what notes you need to be able to do that riff/run... and then relax! If your throat is tense in anyway, the riff won't happen. It's also worth figuring out which particular riffs work best for you and your instrument - you don't need to exactly copy someone else's riffs, although, it's good practice to try and figure out how another sing does them! Spend time learning what your voice can do, and showcase that! There was great variety in this class, from emotional ballads, to some more light-hearted numbers. Interestingly, the light-hearted songs were performed by the boys in the class: Elliott Hearne delivered a little bit of cheeky comedy in his song 'Obviously' by McFly, Reece Kilminster showed his developing crooner ability, and Drew Robilliard demonstrated some fabulous rrrrrrrrrrrrolled r's in a performance of Reet Petite. One thing I will say for these young performers to be careful about American accents - a lot of our favourite artists are often American (or Canadian), and it's all too easy to accidentally mimic their accent when learning a song. What this does however is stop you sounding like you! Spend some time with the vowels of your song and make sure you're singing in YOUR accent, not someone else's! Two performances which I think really connected for the audience were those of Luella Taylor (You Raise me Up), and Jess Pearce (Run). It was clear that for both of these performers that there was a lot of emotions connected to these pieces. It's a tough call when you're choosing a piece: you want a song that you are connected with, but sometimes if you've got too much invested in the song it can become a bit overwhelming (I know, I've had it happen to me!). Sometimes we do need to step back and really think if a song might be a bit too much for us emotionally at the present moment in time. That said, both of these girls produced wonderful performances, but for me it was the class winner Jess Pearce who delivered the performance of the day. There's a fabulous voice developing with this singer: a little work to do on the low end, but the upper notes in her mix register are really coming into their own, and look effortless. I also thought the way she ended the piece with such a delicate and poignant delivery was stunning - Well done Jess, this was magical.
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| Dressed to perform - winners of the Under 15 piano duet |
Opening the afternoon session was the Quick Study Under 18, which featured a young violinist Joseph Stoller. The Quick Study is an interesting class: the competitor is given a piece selected by the adjudicator (that is reflective of their skill level), and they then have 48 hours to rehearse the piece ready for performance. I've done this class myself (many moons ago!), and it is definitely a test of your musicianship skills, and it is something I would encourage musicians and singers to do themselves; not necessarily in a competitive capacity, but test yourself to learn a piece in a limited amount of time, as it will really teach you what you are good at and what you are not! Elizabeth mentioned how, if Joseph hadn't entered the class, then we wouldn't have got to hear it, so hopefully a few more performers will take up the challenge, and have a go! Joseph won the class and received a Highly Commended for his efforts.
The next class was a wonderful display of piano playing in the Piano Under 18, again, as with the Sonata class, there was some vastly difficult repertoire being tackled. Elizabeth focused much of her critique on the psychology of performance, and how sometimes nerves can get the better of us and create a lot of tension in the hands, which is an issue for pianists especially. My advice for performers when it comes to nerves, is that there are two tried and tested methods you can use to deal with them - either get really excited (jumping up and down, crazy dancing in the wings - something that gets your heart rate up a little bit), as this will disperse the adrenaline throughout your entire body and help get rid of that butterfly feeling in the stomach - OR, you can make use of some deep breathing techniques (particularly those used within yoga or tai chi), which will do the same thing, but keep you calmer and make things more fluid mentally. Which approach you choose is very much dependant on your upcoming performance - a calmer approach for a calmer piece (and vice versa). Another piece of advice I frequently give is about getting rid of negative tension. Contrary to popular belief, we don't want to get rid of ALL tension in our body when we perform, otherwise nothing happens at all! Not all tension is created equal, and as a musician we need to figure out exactly how much we really need to get the job done, and get rid of the excess that might be holding us back without realising. Think about picking up a pencil... you wouldn't pick it up with the same effort as you would a suitcase would you?.... So you don't need to use more effort than you need to play or sing, right?
- Some beautiful performances in this class, and I thoroughly enjoyed Jack Tostevin-Hall's performance of one of my favourite pieces, Chopin's Posthumous Nocturne in C#minor. It was Marie-Claire Benoist's performance of Rachmaninoff's C#minor Prelude which was so incredibly atmospheric, and I'm so impressed with how Marie-Claire, who has smaller hands that most pianists, was able to still create such powerful chords. A well deserved Distinction mark.
The next class, a well represented Violin Under 14 came with a little bit of drama, as one of the competitors unfortunately tripped up the stairs on their way to the stage to perform, dropping their instrument - I've seen this happen during a concert as well, and I am so impressed with their ability to just take a moment, get everything fixed and sorted, and come back onto the stage and perform magnificently - BRAVO!! A high standard class again, with three performers coming in third place (Peter Birch, Ollie Purdue and Matthew Moody), Joseph Stoller coming in 2nd with a Distinction, and Sam Cole winning the class with another Distinction. This class was followed by the Orchestral Woodwind Ensemble: Secondary School Age, which showcased the Music Centre Flute Choir, conducted by Dan Madden. There is clearly some quality flute teaching happening here, allowing some fabulous work within a group capacity, so it's very fitting this group won with a Distinction. Finishing off the afternoon we had two Male voice choir classes: The Male Voice Choirs Under 14, followed by the Male Voice Choirs Under 18. The first was quite literally one of the most adorable classes I've ever seen, as we were treated to the performance from the Guernsey Music Centre Boys Choir - It's wonderful to see so many young boys singing! Perhaps not all the performers were 100% switched on, but that's to be expected from such a young group of singers - and these are the skills that get taught by doing the Eisteddfod; learning how to focus, learning to follow, learning to lead, being able to take critique and grow from it, and being able to take praise and be humble with it. The Music Centre Boys Choir won their class with the a Highly Commended, and the Elizabeth College Close Harmony Group followed suit by winning their class (Under 18) with a Distinction.
The evening session began with the most unusual set of classes the Eisteddfod has to offer: the Compositions Under 18, Composition Under 18 School Entry, and Composition Over 18. For these classes, competitors hand in scores they have written (along with a recording) to be adjudicated months before the Eisteddfod begins, before being talked about in the classes at the festival itself. In these classes, Elizabeth decided to talk about the pieces, and play a the recordings of the pieces for the audience to hear, citing that it's quite soul-destroying as a composer to write music and never have it played - and BOY do I agree with that statement! I love these classes, as we so often forget that music is being written by living breathing people - and people that live on our own little island no less! It is somewhat of a passion project of mine to get more local music in this context performed, and seeing the calibre of work the young composers are producing is wonderful. Lots of the composers have great ideas, and the general theme (as it often is when you're first starting to compose) was to develop ideas more thoroughly. My advice, is to keep a little note book you can sketch ideas into - you never know when a seemingly small idea might turn into something spectacular - it also enables you to figure out which ideas fit with each other, or when you're trying to put too much together. In particular, I really enjoyed the snippets of James Thompson's piece 'Nightfall', which was so well written as a Jazz combination, and I also loved how idiomatic Jana Shrigley's piece 'Russian March' was - writing in an idiomatic way for instruments is a real skill, so I hope Jana continues to develop that instinct. We also had an amusing first for the Eisteddfod: a competitor taking part via FaceTime! Elizabeth Beacom was unable to be at the session as she is currently at university, so she participated via a FaceTime call on her mother's phone - The wonders of technology! I very much enjoyed Elizabeth Beacom's piece 'Racecar' - it just sounds SO much like her. We don't often think about how a composers work sounds like them, but if you really listen you can hear the repeated ideas/themes and just overall approach. You may remember from yesterday's post that our adjudicator had already mentioned how much she liked my piece 'My Hiding Place', and I was so pleased that she decided to play all of it for the audience. I was also so pleased to win this class with an Outstanding 92, after having The Accidentals premiere it at St James on Sunday, and hearing the adjudicator's praise for it. She even kept the CD recording of it because she loves it so much! That's a win right there! The other class winners were James Thompson for 'Nightfall' with an Outstanding, and Matt Woodington for 'A Chase through Time' with a Distinction.
- Just a little side note, I'm actually planning a concert at St James later this year, specifically to feature the music of living and local composers, and I really hope all of the composers who presented works in these classes tonight will submit these (or any other) works to the call for scores when I put it out! Keep and eye and ear out every body!
The next two classes to follow were the Choirs Secondary School Age, and the Recorder Groups Open. Once again we were treated to high quality music making from these two very different groups - that said, there is a surprising amount of cross-overs you can draw from Singing and Woodwind ensembles; needing to breathe together, balance of the parts, making sure the melody (wherever it may be in the ensemble), sings out etc. Rachel Wright is showing so much incredible work with Guernsey Girls this year, and it is showing with the marks they are receiving, as they gained yet another Outstanding for their performance, winning their class. St Sampson's Highschool also performed brilliantly with their Recorder ensemble, earning the trophy and a Distinction. It's great to see a mix of students and teachers within an ensemble, and I had a lot of fun listening to them rehearsing in the wonderful acoustic that is the concourse of Beau Sejour! We really should make more use of the concourse as a potential performance venue, as the acoustics are surprisingly fabulous!
Continuing the evening we had two adult vocal classes; the Vocal Classe Superieure Over 18, followed by the Tenor Solo, which you may remember was moved from it's original place on Friday evening. The Classe Superieure is essentially a miniature versatility class for the vocalist, who must perform two pieces, one written before 1900, and one after. It's also not a listed requirement, but I find it helps to pick two pieces which are also stylistically different, not just from different time periods (so, if your pre-1900 is slow, pick something a little livelier for the post-1900, for example). Two very strong performances in this class from Niall McCathie and Joan LeFlem, but on this occasion if was Joan LeFlem who came away with the win and a Distinction mark of 89.
- After a short interval, Niall was back onstage to deliver his Tenor Solo. I always love hearing Niall sing, as he has such gravitas to his voice, and knows how to deliver a song. It's very fitting then that he won the class with a Distinction mark of 88. Niall also let me know that the trophy for this class has a family connection for him, so it really means something to him to win it.
Next we had the Piano Classe Superieure Over 18 - like it's vocal counterpart, the pianist has to choose contrasting works from different composers to showcase their versatility as pianist. In this class were eisteddfod veterans, Marilyn Pugh, and Bob Perkins. Elizabeth spoke about Marilyn's ability to really reflect the style of the composer, and her ability to draw colour out of the piano (which is not easy with 'The Beast', although perhaps the initial tempos were a little on the quick side. Bob as a player shows wonderful technical skill, but perhaps on this occasion he didn't quite capture the feel of Bartok as a composer. As such, it was Marilyn's depth of understanding of the presented styles that won her the class with 88 marks. Well done mum! - Rounding off the evening we had the Lieder Over 18, which is a duo partnership of voice and piano, and most importantly, must be sung in German. Some great teamwork showcased by both sets of performers, which ranged from a soft and romantic piece 'Der Muller und der Bach from Jane Martine (v) and Alison Bourgaize (p), and an epically dramatic piece 'Dichterliebe No. 7 Ich Grolle Nicht' from Niall McCathie (v) and Marilyn Pugh (p) - Niall's performance, for me, was the highlight of this class, as he gave amazing face as a disgruntled tenor, and completed his performance with a dramatic slamming shut of his music folder, much to the delight of the audience. For me personally, Niall and Marilyn were the better performance of the two, although I do agree that there were a few occasions, mainly when Niall was low in his range that he was surprisingly drowned out but the piano. The balance for Jane and Martine however was immaculate, and I think over all it was this aspect that won Jane and Martine the trophies with a very high Distinction of 89. Just goes to show, everyone has an opinion and won't always agree on the outcome!
A superbly jam-packed day of music making - longer than expected due to the additional classes from Thursday, but so very much appreciated from all that attended.
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| Ever the dramatic, Niall McCathie showing off his 'disgruntled tenor face' |
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