"Happy Faces for a Happy Future!"

That was the sentiment adjudicator Peter Hewitt conveyed to the audience on Friday's Music Eisteddfod, a statement which certainly reflected the mood and atmosphere of the day's sessions.

Bright and early for the morning sessions we began with the beautifully bright sounds of the island's young cellists: the Under 9 class, followed by the Under 11s. From an audience perspective, there certainly is a lot of great foundation playing here from these young musicians, a point Peter Hewitt most certainly picked up on, stating that he was "so heartened by the instrumental work on the island". He gave some great feedback on the importance of taking time to set up (and be comfortable for performance), and further talk about the importance of acting as a musician, to better convey the music to the audience. For me, the transition from the Under 9 to the Under 11 class really highlighted the great leap in skill level and repertoire for these cellists, and emphasised how fantastic the cello teaching is in the island (well done Chris Holland and Mary Cordall). Congratulations to the class winners, Molly Robinson (Under 9) and Archie Purdue (Under 11) - I personally would also like to mention Benjamin Childs in the Under 11 class, whose tone on the cello has much promise, as well as his musicality. After the interval the morning session continued with the Under 9 Violin class, which showed even more promise in the island's young musicians. Again, there is some excellent teaching going on here, as we were presented with, essentially, an army of young violinists (21, in fact!). Peter Hewitt spent more time talking to these students on how to communicate through music, explaining that music is 'like a language'. Well done class winner Matthew Moody with your lovely "Cossack Dance" - very atmospheric!

The afternoon session continued with the light entertainment classes that we all know and love in this Eisteddfod, kicking off with the Under 12s for their Songs from the Shows. All round this was a superb class, with every variety of show number, full of entertainment, commitment, good story-telling and musicality - essentially everything the adjudicator was looking for! Peter Hewitt spoke to the children about the importance of the quality of voice, that it's important not to push or force the sound, to never be scared about performing quietly. I must say, as a vocal coach I am very, very pleased that he is fervently repeating himself with this insight, not as a negative criticism, but in a supportive and caring way. The class was won by Maisie Webster, Eve Walley, Imogen Giles, and Freya Mitchell with their delightful quartet "Museum Song" from the musical Barnum.

Joint U18 Vocal Pop winners Kirsty Dempster & Harry Giubelio

Concluding the afternoon was the Under 18 Vocal Pop Solo; a class which showed some great understanding of the pop genre, with some lovely song choices. Just a little insight from me - I'd like to see more of these young singers explore a wider range of the pop repertoire, by going a bit further back in time! There are some who did (Charlotte Hardwick performing a song by Joni Mitchell, for example), but there is a tendency for this age group to stick to what they know and choose songs that are either currently, or have recently been in the charts, and there's such a wealth of great songs from further 'back in the day', songs and styles that may actually suit some of these talented youngsters better than some of today's current music - just a suggestion! It's also worth taking some consideration of whether the song you want to perform translates well to a piano accompaniment. Nothing against any of the accompanists today, but there were a couple songs that I just thought a guitar backing may have enhanced the performance, or given the singer a sound more similar to the song they know from a recording. All that aside, the singing and presentations were lovely, with some very promising sounds. Again, Peter Hewitt was keen to encourage the singers not to force the vocal quality, especially considering that, at this age, the voices are newly transitioned and, as such, vulnerable. Truly a high standard of class, and unable to separate them, he awarded joint 1st to Harry Giubelio and Kirsty Dempster with Distinctions.

It's worth taking time to mention here how the adjudicator seems to be marking. There are many who have noted that he's a 'low marker', and whilst yes, in the past we have had flourishes of Outstanding Marks (90+), Peter Hewitt's marking appears to be much more conservative, yet glowing with praise, and he has noted several times that he rarely gives out Distinctions. I think we need to accept that, for this particular adjudicator, a Commended (81-83) is actually very good, and probably what another adjudicator would consider a Highly Commended - whether we will actually see a 90 this year remains a complete mystery! His marking is very consistent, however, and he always explains what he is looking for in each class, which is perhaps the more important thing.

Opening the evening session with some style and class was the Under 18 Vocal Jazz class. This was my favourite class of the day (being a lover of jazz myself), and I must say I thought all the singers really did very well, giving us a delightful cross-section of the Jazz genre: from the more 'legit' sounding Gershwin classics, through sultry Latin to some modern rock/swing. It was Elliot Hearne's smooth rendition of "Sway" that ultimately won the trophy. After a 'swinging' start, the evening then took a classical turn as we were treated to more serious concert music featured in the Over 18 Piano Class Superieure, Over 18 Vocal Class Superieure, Over 18 Sight Reading, Over 18 Recorder Solo, and Over 18 Piano Solo Classes. The two Class Superieures', in particular were very closely contested, with the narrowest of marks between the winner and the runner-up. My favourite performance across these two classes was Niall McCathie in the Vocal Class Superieure. Although he didn't win, I really thought the warmth of his voice filled the theatre beautifully, and his choice of repertoire in particular was lovely to listen to. Given the nature of the material, which was very much technical in nature, no surprise that there was a lot of very technical talk about said material. If you yourself are a musician you would have appreciated these discussions, but it was perhaps a little heavy for people who maybe just wanted to listen to some lovely tunes! There was a lovely little bit of humour injected into the evening however, in the form of the Sight Reading Class, and pianist John Morris' comment of "well at least it's not as bad as last year!". Closing out the night was the Over 18 Folk Song Class, which gave us three lovely folk classics. In previous years this class has had much more participation, but this has seemed to have dwindled for whatever reason in the last couple of years. That said, it didn't diminish the charm that this class always delivers, and Simon Howitt's rendition of "Black Velvet Band", which I have most often heard as a raucous pub number, was presented with much more of a sense of emotion and story telling, which I really enjoyed.

Another superb day at the Guernsey Eisteddfod, it is clear to see that everyone has really prepared themselves to the best of their abilities, further securing that the music making in this island really is quite remarkable.