and the rescheduled Piano Duet Under 18. Some wonderful duet playing in these classes, which just served to highlight the importance, but also the joy of playing music with other people. I've talked before how being a pianist can be a lonely place sometimes, as you tend to spend most of your time practicing and performing solo, so playing duets is an amazing way to expand your skills and have some fun while your at it. There's some fabulous teamwork emerging within these duets, particularly in the Under 12 class, which saw both pairs receive Distinctions, with the win going to Darcey and Harry Hodgson.
 |
| Winner of the Under 12 Pop class, Ruby-Jane Gill |
which Elizabeth picked up on was the excellent song choices for this age group - finding good pop songs for young singers can be a challenge, for both the performer and the teacher, but it really is important to put the time in to think about it - a lot of the repertoire out there, especially from the artists that a lot of young singers will look up to, can be too mature in both technical requirements (range, stylisms, etc) and in subject matter. In this class however, there is clearly some great teaching going on, as each performer had a song which really worked for them at their stage of maturity and vocal development, which is wonderful to see. The variety was also great, because again it showcased that there is a lot of great material out there if you go looking for it. It was clear to see that each of these singers has a really promising future, and I so look forward to hearing them in a few years time when as they grow and develop. Elizabeth highlighted Emily Northmore's charming performance of 'Bring Me Sunshine' (made famous by Morcambe & Wise), Zaheer Anees punchy performance of 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams, and class winner Ruby-Jane Gill's emotive performance of 'A Thousand Years' by Christina Perri. Well done everyone in this class - keep singing! The next class, the Versatility Under 18, is a really interesting class. We know lots of our musicians are multi-talented, and often play more than one instrument, and this class is the perfect place to showcase that - it's a shame then that there wasn't more entries in this class, because I know there's the performers out there to do it! Not to be confused, this class is not the same as the self-accompanied, which requires singing and accompanying yourself, whereas versatility is performing two separate pieces on two separate instruments. That said, there's actually nothing in there rules that says you can't self-accompany if one of your performances is singing! Only one competitor in this class, Cara Fitzpatrick, who performed on both Saxophone and Piano, receiving a Highly Commended for her efforts.
- The final two classes of the final morning of the Eisteddfod 2018 were the Piano Solo; TV & Film Themes Under 18, which saw Sam Cole performing the ever classic theme tune from 'The Muppets' (one of my personal favourites!), earning himself a Distinction, and the Orchestral Woodwind Under 14, which was won by Naomi Miller performing Giga from Sonata in F by Handel.
The Afternoon session started with the final popular music vocals class of the festival, the Pop Song Under 12 & Under 15. As with the Under 12's this mornig, there were some really good song choices in this class. Although, just an observation of mine, which I find happens quite often with this age group is a little bit of a force maturity in the voice. What I mean by this is that sometimes young singers can be SO keen to want to sound like their idles, that they try to emulate things without understanding how these older singers actually do it, the most obvious of these are a forced vibrato sound, nasality, and an overly forward tongue placements. Particularly with the vibrato, although this is a technique which yes, can be taught, and yes, needs working on, this is something which starts to develop naturally in a singer when their voice is free from tension, and at the right age! Nasality is something which many singers do because they a) think it gives them more power, and b) think it's twang... which is isn't. Tongue position is also important, but there's SO much I could say about that that's probably better suited to it's own blogpost, but my general advice to all these singers is to listen and watch yourselves sing, and think about whether you're forcing sounds in anyway - singing should feel easy, and we shouldn't be creating any extra tension when we sing. I also encourage these young singers to not rush their development - don't try to be too mature too soon, you have PLENTY of years to do that, and your voice will be all the better for it if you allow it to develop at the right pace. That said, there is some wonderful presentation skills in all of these performers, and this was highlighted by the excellent song choices. In particular, I thought Simone Ashplant performed the best I've heard her sing in the whole festival with her rendition of 'Let it Be' - I just thought this song choice really worked for her, and allowed her natural voice to shine. I also thought that Louis Troalic is showing so much promise, and I was amazed to hear how much his voice has developed from last year, it's only going to get better and better, so well done Louis! The class was won by Rachel Dawson, who gave yet another stellar performance with her rendition of 'When your Say Nothing at All', as made famous by Ronan Keating.
- The final class of the afternoon was the Folk Song Over 18 - an unusual place, to have an adult class on an afternoon session, I thought, but thankfully this was a well fielded class. A lovely moment for me, in this class, was to hear a new composition, which was 'Yellow Bird', the words of which were written by my good friend Fran Remick, and the melody by my other good friend Lucy Cave. We often think of folk songs as being 'old fables', but there is actually a wealth of new folk music being written constantly, and it's great to see someone local adding to the mix. I thought Lucy performed this song beautifully, with some soaring high notes which really highlighted both Lucy's voice and Fran's words. Great job ladies! I also thought Joy Ligget performed really well in this class - I'm so pleased to see Joy doing well year, and I think her voice is really blossoming from choosing really suitable material. And I'm sure Joy won't mind me saying, this is proof that it's never too late to start working on your voice, or to find your voice! If you want to sing, start singing!! A great class overall, which was won by Fiona Malley with 'I know where I'm going', and a mark of Distinction.
The final session was a wonderful evening to round off the festival. A slight change in schedule, we started the Pop Song Duos/Trios/Quartets Over 18, which was won by Helen Gilchrist, Julia Jager, Louisa Mace, with their a cappella performance of 'Time After Time' by Cyndi Lauper. I do want to mention the lovely performance by Scott Michel and Aimee Queru ('If I Didn’t Know Better'). What I really like is that their voices blend really well, and actually I think Scott does a wonderful job of softening up his voice to work with Amy's generally softer vocal tone. A little bit more work on some more confident vocal harmonies will see these two progress really well. We followed this class with the long anticipated rescheduled Novelty Class Over 18. This class is just so perfect for the final night of the festival, because it just gives such a light hearted atmosphere, and by this point in the festival, the audience is up for anything! Such great variety with the song choices in this class, which entertained the audience immensely. Lindsey Veillard's performance of 'I want to sing Opera' was so brilliantly delivered, with such great interaction between her and her accompanist Andrew Warren that you would have thought this was a double act - I was in stitches! I myself performed in this class, with a pastiche piece 'The Boy From' (Sondheim's amusing homage to 'The Girl from Ipanema'), which saw myself trying desperately to pronounce really long place names... and sing in Welsh, which I'm pretty sure my fiancé Michael Sullivan was laughing at for all the wrong reasons!) - I also thought that Matthew Nichols' performance of 'Slough' by Rickey Gervais was so spot on as an interpretation of the infamous song, I think dry humour really suits Matt. A really high standard of, not only comedy, but well sung performances, which was won by Lindsey with an Outstanding 90 marks.
The Choirs Mixed Voices 18 and Over for the Bucktrout Trophy was a wonderfully full class this year, with four choirs participating. It was really wonderful to see new choir 'Styx Sing for Health performing, who chose not to be adjudicated. There is so much evidence around which proves that singing has incredible health benefits, both physically and mentally. Singing in a choir is also proven to improve your mood at least twice a much as just singing in general, so being in a choir is wonderful for your overall well-being. There's even a petition going around at the moment which is aiming to get 'Singing by Prescription' included on the NHS. Congratulations to their conductor Samantha Nichols for starting up such a wonderful singing group. The other three choirs all performed brilliantly, showcases their own strengths within their ensembles, and showing such great support for each other as well. I thought State of Harmony gave a wonderfully energetic performance, and it's great to see them at the Eisteddfod - I would like to say that, I think maybe their conductor might want to think about toning down their enthusiasm a little bit! It's one thing to be the driving force of the ensemble, but the conductor also needs to find the way to reflect the mood of the piece, and also not detract from the performance. I know I'm new to conducting, and I'm still very much learning myself, so I come from a place of understanding - conducting is SO much harder than it looks, and it's so much more than just standing in front of a group and flapping around! Perhaps it's time for a conducting workshop in Guernsey, to give more new conductors a chance to develop their skills. A class of really great standard, which saw GYCT Singers come third, State of Harmony come second, and The Accidentals win the class with another Outstanding. Elizabeth said of The Accidentals how wonderful each of their performances has been, and what a great program of songs they produced in this class, which again included a piece of my own 'A la Perchoine' - a fitting song to feature on the last night of the Eisteddfod!
On the last night we also celebrate the Special Awards of the festival. What I really enjoyed about Elizabeth's choices for these awards was how encouraging she was, especially for the younger winners. I also liked that she gave some 'honourable mentions', which included a mention of Louise Madden for the The Janet Bran Cup for the most promising junior singer, and Jean Owen for the Longmire Baton. I was also honoured to have my piece, 'My Hiding Place' as performed by The Accidentals mentioned as in contention for the The Miriam Le Page Prix D’Honneur Trophy for the most memorable performance. From a teacher's point of view, I was so proud to see Rachel Dawson win the Janet Bran Cup for most promising junior singer. It's always a joy for me to see a young singer really start to develop and own their voice, and be rewarded for their hard work. In that same vein, I thought that Francois Cloete was well deserving of winner, not only the The Marjorie Guillemette Cup for the most promising junior pianist, but also the The Adjudicator’s Cup for the variety of performances he gave across the week in support of others. If you would like to see the full list of winners please click here.
 |
| Anything goes in the Corporate Class! A truly 'Quackers' performance from MV Taxi Services |
It really has been a wonderful Eisteddfod for 2018, and our adjudicator Elizabeth Childs has been a big part of that. She has been so warm, encouraging, and seems to possess a never ending stream of energy. I'm also so pleased she was so vocal in encouraging everyone to support the arts, to support arts education, and to fight tooth and nail to make sure that the performing arts get the much needed funding that it needs to enable people to explore and perform. It's been proven time and time again that music helps to develop life skills and is an integral part of life, and I applaud Elizabeth's passion for vocalising on this issue of funding cuts and not supporting music education. I implore all of your who love music, and the performing arts, to continue to support the arts in the island; go watch as much as you can, join a choir, attend a festival, offer to help out a parent who needs to get their kids to rehearsal, or donate some sponsorship money to a society, or a new concert series etc. Guernsey is an incredible hub for music and the arts, and we need to keep it alive with all of our might.
- It's been a fantastic year, Guernsey, until next time, see you in 2019!
 |
| Encouragement through positivity and warmth - a message from our lovely adjudicator Elizabeth Childs |
No comments:
Post a Comment