Thank you and Goodnight!

The final day of the Guernsey Music Eisteddfod 2017, and what an amazing year it's been!

After a well-earned morning off, the last day began with the afternoon session, starting with a well-represented Violin Under 11 class. What excellent tuition these kids are having, as evident by some top quality work being performed in this class. I'd like to mention Harry Hutchins and Matthew Moody, both of whom I felt showed great promise, with a lovely warmth of tone and natural vibrato developing in their playing. I also quite enjoyed Harry's little speech at the beginning of his piece which outlined the background of the music he was about to perform. There were two knock-out performances in this class: Joseph Stoller performing 'Concerto in A Minor - 1st Movement' by Vivaldi, and Sam Cole performing 'Concerto in D major, 3rd Movement' by Seitz: a concerto battle it would seem! Both of these young lads showed in-depth command of their instrument, and also and thorough understanding of the music they were performing, which is incredible, especially when you consider that this is an Under 11 class! (In fact, I believe Sam Cole is only 9 years old!) - in the end, it was Sam Cole who pipped it to the trophy, with both of them receiving Distinction's. Top playing all round! - It did also occur to me during this class, that perhaps Sam Cole and Joseph Stoller should join forces with George Walker (violist) and Archie Purdue (cellist) - as an Under 11 string quartet, that would be a tour de force indeed!

The only other class of the afternoon was the Under 18 Pop Song. We've had a lot of good contemporary vocal singing this Eisteddfod, but I think many people (both performers and audience) will have begun to realise that, actually.... pop singing is hard!! A lot of the melodic writing can be relatively straight forward, the accompaniment easy enough for a pianist or guitarist with a solid amount of skill to pick up, which on paper (or by listening to the original artist) makes the song seem easy. But actually, as Adrian explained, those artists have trained for YEARS to sound that way, and make it sound easy - he spoke the other night about how The Xfactor and The Voice (and other programs of that nature) give a false impression of 'talent' - Leona Lewis is a prime example of someone who was marketed as being 'discovered' on the show when in actual fact she attended The Brit School for years of vocal training.... along with her classmates Adele and Jessie J by the way! These are singers who know the technical ins and outs of their voices because they've studied, and, contrary to popular belief, there is SO much to learn regarding contemporary technique. That said, it's great to see that the is a lot of good groundwork being done with the singers on this island. If I had a piece of advice for these young singers it would be to take the time to strip their chosen songs back to the bare melodic skeleton, master it in it's simplicity, and then build it back up with style/idioms/pop-tricks etc. It's far to easy to want to throw in all the riffs you can because, well, you can - but what does it add to the performance? It's something to think about, that's for sure. In regards to this class, I'd like to mention Charlotte Ewin, who I feel is really developing a gorgeous alto voice (which is not too surprising as her mother has one of those as well!). This is a singer with huge potential, and I'd really love to hear her tackle some 'seemingly' simple songs, just to see what she can draw out of them. Class winner Luella Taylor certainly showcased her growing command of her voice, and charmed us all with her rendition of 'Imagine' by John Lennon (based on the Eva Cassidy version), earning herself a Distinction.

L-R: Kim Reece-Sheerin, Chris Taylor (accompanist) & Julie Tostevin,
winners of the Pop Duos, Trio & Quartets Class

Onto the final evening session of the Music Eisteddfod, we began with the Over 18 Self-Accompanied class, featuring only myself and Julie Tostevin. Julie and I seem to be in the habit of contesting classes together, but doing the most diametrically opposite ends of the spectrum in the chosen genre, which the adjudicator remarked made his job rather more difficult! Julie performed an upbeat song 'House of Gold' by 21 Pilots, on Ukulele and leg-tambourine (which made for a rather amusing moment when she made her way 'musically' onto the stage!), whilst I performed the classic ballad 'What a Wonderful World'. Adrian was very complimentary, not only on our performances, but on Julie and I's excellent musicianship, and what a joy it has been to have met us and heard us perform these last ten days. I'm sure Julie will agree with me in how wonderful it was to receive that kind of praise. Separated by only one mark, both in the Distinction category, in the end I walked away with the trophy. Following this class we had the Over 18 Pop Duos, Trios & Quartets featuring just two duets; Louisa Mace & Julia Jager, and Julie Tostevin & Kim Reece-Sheerin. Duet singing can be difficult to master, as two voices can often not blend - in choirs it's general practice to try and have a minimum of three singers on any one part for this very reason. It takes great humility as a singer to be willing to adapt your unique voice and your own personal style to match your partner, which is something that was demonstrated excellently by Julie and Kim. These are two singers who know how to work together, and build each other up musically: they won the class with 88 marks.

The last of the solo classes this Eisteddfod was the Over 18 Popular Song; always well represented with a fantastic array of contemporary music on offer for the audience to enjoy. Some brilliant performances, but the highlight of the evening has to go to Dominique Ogier, who absolutely smashed it out the park with her rendition of 'Feeling Good' (based on the Muse cover). Dominique is a relatively new face (and voice) at the Eisteddfod, being mostly known for her Rock-style singing within the Guernsey music scene, so it's great to see her tackling this very different type of performing. The adjudicator remarked simply "wow" at Dominique's powerhouse vocals, and commented on her natural ability in the sultry blues style of singing. He had no hesitation in awarding her a 91 and the trophy. Bravo Dom - more like that next year, yes?!

A wonderful part of the last night of the Eisteddfod is the Special Awards; these are given by the adjudicator at his discretion, highlighting people and/or moments which he feels deserve special recognition (a full list of these winners can be found on the Special Awards page). I was very pleased to see my mother collect, not only the June Bourget Trophy for Most Outstanding Choir (awarded to The Accidentals), but also the Longmire Baton for her amazing work as a conductor. I was delighted to have been awarded the Peter A Malley Memorial Trophy for commitment to the Eisteddfod via my performing, accompanying and teaching. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, Julie Tostevin won the Miriam R Le Page Prix D'Honneur Trophy for most memorably performance of her Victoria Wood classic 'They Call me Pam'. Julie never fails to impress us with her novelty and comedic numbers, a thoroughly well deserved win there! I was also very pleased for the winners of the Adjudicator's Cup, an award for which the adjudicator can give to anyone for any reason. This year it went to GATE for their performance of Damn Yankees - as you may remember from a previous post, I talked about how they were stricken by illness and people being stuck in the mainland, and friends jumping in at the last second to help out, and how they still managed to achieve a Distinction mark despite all the issues they were face with. Absolutely well done GATE for this high honour, and being able to pull it out the bag when you most need to!

Get Inspired! Corporate Class winners 'Specsavers Choir' 

The final class of the night, the Corporate Class: a chance for the local businesses/teams of Guernsey to pull something together, get up on stage and have a damn good go. Not so popularly contested this year, with only two competitors, but thoroughly enjoyable none-the-less! We had the hilarious, but a bit haphazard States of Guernsey Choir performing a piece entitled 'Serious Business', versus the Specsavers Choir performing 'Mister Blue Sky'. To round off the absolute fun of this class (along with the rest of the Music Section), Adrian Goss decided that the audience should get to decide the winner via 'clap-o-meter'. Both performers received a brilliant amount of support and applause, but it was the Specsavers applause which was louder and longer, winning them the class and The Inspired Trophy.

Adrian closed the Eisteddfod by remarking how "hugely impressed by the musical standard of this island" he is. As an adjudicator of over 30 years, he stated often about how he rarely gives out 90's (outstanding), maybe giving one in a festival. In Guernsey, he gave out TEN - including the amazing 95 he gave The Accidentals for their mixed voice choir class, something he as never done before. I think it's safe to say, we have something really special here in Guernsey - musical talent of the highest possible standard - long may we continue to grow this talent, and long may we continue to support the music.

Thanks Eisteddfod 2017 - it's been amazing!

That's one happy lady! Dominique Ogier after winning the Pop Class with 91!