Pictured Above: Head Judge - Geoff Horton and Rotary Ascot President, Bob Oliver, presenting the 1st Prize Trophy to Winning Vocalist Sarah-Jane Butler
The local round of the RIBI Young Musician Competition 2023 was hosted by Heathfield School, Ascot, on Tuesday January 17th 2023. Organised by the Rotary Club of Ascot, the local round leads to regional and eventually, national rounds. After a welcome by Headteacher at Heathfield - Sarah Wilson, MC and organiser, Ascot Rotarian - Tony Love, introduced the 11 competitors - who came from local schools - Heathfield, LVS Ascot, St.Mary's Ascot, St.George's Windsor, Upton House Windsor, Papplewick and Luckley in Wokingham. A quite amazing line up of musicians, including five pianists, two vocalists, a cellist, a clarinetist, a violinist and a trumpet. The adjudicators Mr Geoff Horton, Mrs Linda Hannah-Anderson and Mr.Graham Smith. In announcing the inners and Commendations, Mr.Horton, commented that the decison had been very difficult and sometimes came down to very small difference, with several of the performances being deemed 'virtuostic' and even 'worthy of recording'.
In the end, Sarah Jane Butler was awarded first place in the Vocal section, following beautiful performances of My Lovely Celia (George Munro), Dans Les Ruines d'une Abbaye (Gabriel Faure), and Practically Perfect (Anthony Drewe and George Stiles). Runner Up was Lucy Monckton for her fine performances of Danza Danza (Durante) , Mattinata (Leoncavallo), With You( from Ghost -the musical) (Stewart, Rubin and Ballard)
Pictured Above: Head Judge - Geoff Horton and Rotary Ascot President, Bob Oliver, presenting the Runner Up Certificate to Vocalist Lucy Monckton
Both may go through to the progress to the Cluster (Regional) South East Finals, depending on what happens at District level. From there the winner goes to the National Finals (date to be announced).
Winner of the Instrumental section was David Shao, pictured below, after fine, fluent piano performances of Prelude & Fugue in C Major (Bach) and Toccata (Khachaturian).
Pictured Above: Head Judge - Geoff Horton & Rotary Ascot President, Bob Oliver, presenting the 1st Prize Trophy to Winning Pianist, David Shao. Runner up in this category was another pianist, Shannon Law, who captivated the usdience with performances of Sonata in F (J Haydn) and The Lark (Glinka/Balakirev).
Runner Upin the Instrumental Category, Shannon Law, pictured below
Both winners and runners up may go through to the progress to the Cluster (Regional) South East Finals. From there the winners go to the National Finals (date to be announced).
Special Mention also went to clarinetist, Imogen Horrocks for superb renditions of Concerto No 1 in C MInor - Adagio (Louis Spohr and Victorian Country Garden Suite - Spring and Exotica (Paul G Reade) and Sonatina -III Furioso (Malcolm Arnold).
A further Special Mention went to violinist, Joel Hammar (pictured below) for playing Violin Concerto No 3 G Major (GA Mozart) and Vidui from Baal Shem 3 Pictures of Chassidic Life (Ernest Bloch)
Pictured Above: Rotary Ascot President, Bob Oliver and the Young Musicians, at RIBI 2023, Hosted by Heathfield School Ascot, January 2023
Rotary Ascot President, Bob Oliver, concluded: "'It never ceases to amaze me the quality of young musical talent we have in our local schools. The Rotary Clubs of Ascot and Wokingham are proud to host the annual 'Young Musicians' competition which gives our young performers a platform to exhibit their musical expertise'. The quality of performances this year was exceptional and we wish the winners every success in the next round of the competition in March".