"Surprise Surprise! I'm a Spring Chicken!"

I know, I know, my titles this year are bonkers - but really, it's all coming from the Eisteddfod itself! Rather fittingly though, after all the hideous weather we had recently (which destroyed our TV aerials... not that it matters, as I've been literally living at the Eisteddfod! haha!), it was nice to see some vaguely Spring Weather today!

Starting the morning in colourful style was Acorn House, 'Rainbow Rhythms' in the Music Making Infant School Age Class. The curtains pulled back and we were shown a gorgeous display of colourful bells, boom-whackers and even t-shirts! A slight request for some willing volunteers to get up on stage to cover the 'missing children' (I assume due to illness), and we were off with a lovely display of the music making skills these young performers are learning. A lovely way to start the day! Continuing on we had the Under 9 Viola class - a new class, as the Eisteddfod committee have decided to split the Under 9 and 11 Violins and Violas into separate instrument classes due to the hefty number of young performers - no bad thing! But, it does mean that the poor violas now have no trophies to compete for! Come on Guernsey, let's get all these classes with trophies by 2017 eh? I've even gone to the trouble to make a full list of every class without a trophy (and those that share as well) which you can read by clicking on the "Donations" page (or following this link: http://guernseyeisteddfodmusic.blogspot.com/p/donations.html). This viola class really was lovely, again, showcasing the excellent tuition from the islands string teachers. A full and high quality class, Peter Hewitt decided to award the class (*hint, no trophy) jointly to Louisa Hughes and Rory Kennedy.

Jean W Martin presenting Peter Hewitt with a new trophy

Next for this mornings session were two of my favourite classes: School Choirs/Groups Special Needs, one class for junior school age, and one for secondary school age. Every year I am always blown away by both Le Rondin and Le Murier's performances at the Eisteddfod, and always end up mesmerised by Juanita Byrne's (Le Rondin conductor) ability to sing, play piano, conduct AND sign at the same time! In particular, Le Rondin's performance really shone for me - their delightfully humorous song "When I was Small", followed by their jumping number "Teddy Bear Rock n' Roll" was absolutely deserving of a Distinction Mark (... Outstanding in my opinion!). Well done both schools for your brilliant work today! It was also lovely to see a trophy presented to the Secondary School class, from Jean W Martin. Following these classes we had the Under 8 and Under 9 piano classes, both showing some excellent promise in these very young pianists. I especially want to highlight the Under 9 winner Sze Lam Chung, for what I thought was some incredibly mature playing for such a young musician, with a lovely sense of musicality and precision. Well done indeed!

Rounding off the morning we had even more fantastic music from the island's very young performers, in the Choirs (Infant School Age) Unison Singing. We were treated to four excellent young choirs, from Melrose, Forest Primary, Blanchelande and Acorn House (Beechwood), all showing us how fine their voices were, and each bringing their own unique spin to songs with actions and even props. I was particularly impressed by the growing plant for Acorn House's performance, and some amazingly well timed bin-bag collecting by Blanchelande (seriously, impeccable timing from the lovely young Bin-Lady on the end! Superb!) I was also very impressed with how fine a voice the young 'chicken' from Forest School had! Brilliant! - A really tough one to call, with every school receiving a Highly Commended award, it was Forest Primary School who came away from the morning with the trophy. I must say I was also really pleased with how supportive each school was of the other schools, with there being a wonderful moment during Forest's performance of "Spring Chicken" were Melrose were dancing along (quietly and respectfully though, I might add!). The camaraderie in the Eisteddfod, it must be said, is truly fantastic, and long may it continue in every section of this Festival (and hopefully spill out into other areas of island life as well!)

In the afternoon we began with the ECJS Steel Pans - it's great to hear the steel pans on stage (we heard them twice today!), and I really enjoy how conductor Richard Sutton manages to arrange such interesting and varied (and recognisable) music for these students to perform. The pans do need tuning though, and I did overhear Mr Sutton talking to the adjudicator about how they are lucky to have donations of new equipment, but the pans really do need some professional maintenance. Now... I've seen a lot of these 'random acts of kindness' things happening around the island - is this not something that could be done?..... None-the-less, ECJS performed brilliantly, both in their Music Making Junior Class, and their Orchestra, Band and Instrumental Ensemble (Junior School Age) Class. Following this we heard more great solo work from Double Basses (Under 16 and Under 18), Percussion (Under 18) and Cello (Under 16). Highlight for me from these players include Elizabeth Beacom's "West Side Story", a medley arranged and performed by fellow local musician Rickey Long a few years ago (I remember it well!), and Abigail Dempsters performance in the Cello Under 18. Especially for the cello class, there is some fantastic playing from these young players, with each showing a great sense of musicality, and showmanship - I did nearly have another panic attack after agreeing to turn pages for Chris Holland (cello teacher) and then realising what I had to follow! Finishing off the afternoon were more large ensembles, in the form the Brass Ensemble Under 18, and the Choirs Secondary School Age (years 7-11) classes. More fine works from all these schools/ensembles here, in another close run competition for the choirs class, with the Music Centre Intermediate Choir just pipping everyone else to top spot.

The evening class began on epic proportions tonight, with possibly one of the most difficult classes in the whole Eisteddfod - Piano Repertoire Over 18, featuring four of Guernsey's veteran first-class pianists. The repertoire class means that the pianist has to provide a small programme of music which showcases the pianists' ability to play a selection of styles/composers - no easy task (and when people ask me if I ever do it, then I laugh!), this is a demanding class! There's a reason this class was such high quality, it was a great display of both exceptional skill (with everyone getting a Distinction Mark) and a the variety of piano music available. John Morris was the winner of this class, in a very tough to call decision. Before the interval we had two smaller classes, the Over 18 Self-Accompanied, and the Over 18 Piano Duet. I was performing in the Self-Accompanied class, competing, in fact, for my own trophy (one I donated last year). I always do a piano piece for the Self-Accompanied, which is a challenge with that piano, it must be said! And I try, every year to get the angle right to perform over (too forward facing to the audience your voice gets swallowed up by the piano, too flat on and your voice disappears into the wings). I think I managed to get it right this year, as I did win the class with an 89 (yay!).

After the interval, two fantastic classes, the Folk Song Groups Over 18, and the Over 18 Pop Song Class. The Folk Song Groups class was a really lovely class, with three completely different groups, giving the audience a complete cross-section of folk singing. GU10 with their 'Sea-Chanty' style sound, The Accidentals with a much more 'classical folk' sound, and SWATS with something between the other two. Peter Hewitt expressed his dislike of having to choose between these groups, having enjoyed each performance so much, but he decided to go with what he considered to be the most 'folky', awarding GU10 the trophy. The Pop Song class closed the Friday night with what Peter Hewitt described as a collection of performances that each had 'something special'. A hotly contested class (it always is, every year), and for the first time in a long time two performers performing the same song: myself and Julie Tostevin both performed 'Songbird' by Fleetwood Mac (one after the other thanks to the class deletions!). In the end, it was Julie who won the trophy (with me in 2nd). The marks for this class reflected the standard, with everyone within the Highly Commended or Distinction bracket.

As we closed out the penultimate night of the 2016 Eisteddfod, there is a sense of winding down now - maybe it was all the lovely pop ballads, or maybe it's just that end of the festival feeling, but the end is nigh, and I'm very excited to see how it all closes out.