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Christ College Young Musician of the
Year Competition
This competition started a decade ago when Lloyds TSB, the
school’s bank, offered to fund a trophy and generous cash prizes for a
Christ College Young Musician of the Year competition, and the
competition’s equally generous current sponsor has ensured that the
event has become not only a firm fixture in, but a real highlight of,
the school’s calendar. Anyone who has been a regular attender will have
had his or her own opinion as to the best performer, their views far
from always coinciding with those of the adjudicators; and few have
envied those adjudicators as they have wrestled with the task of
comparing a violinist with a horn-player, or a flautist with a singer.
2008
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There had been a general feeling that the 2007 Lloyds TSB
Young Musician of the Year evening had set a standard that would be hard
to surpass, but 2008 produced a group of five talented performers who
did just that.
Participants should be of Grade 8 standard and five good
players had already failed to make the final, so the large audience in
the Memorial Hall had a hint of the quality of music in store.
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Anna-Sophia Arnold began the evening with two dance
preludes by Lutoslawski and the Rondo from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.
Although suffering from a painful ear infection, Anna-Sophia presented
her recital confidently and played with a full tone, particularly in the
clarinet’s higher register, and some very musical phrasing in the
Mozart.
Ben Evans’ cello recital paired Bach and Shostakovitch
and both very demanding pieces showed why he had just won a place in the
Welsh National Youth Orchestra. Some tuning problems in arpeggios in the
Bach were balanced by a very rich tone and some accomplished
double-stopping in the Russian piece. Again, Ben presented himself and
his pleasure in the music convincingly to his audience.
Tom Blackburn’s piano programme contained some familiar
pieces by Bach, Beethoven and Chopin but he was able to project his own
interpretation of them with controlled but warm playing. There was a
sparkle about his Chopin and his final piece, a prelude from Hengeveld’s
Partita Rhythmique, really displayed a sense of fun and rhythm.
Steffan Raw-Rees, already a winner on saxophone in
eisteddfodau, brought a technical polish to his programme, showing
formidable control of runs and arpeggios. His choice of pieces perhaps
did not best serve his talents by denying him the chance to vary his
mood and colour.
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Including a singer in the competition always adds a different,
some would say controversial, flavour to the evening. Joshua
Games showed that he was a worthy competitor in terms of
musicianship and an outstanding performer. He established a
rapport with his audience and really interpreted some familiar
songs with clear diction, accurate intonation and confident
posture. He provided his own introduction to two Spanish songs
by Rodrigo and even when singing in Spanish he conveyed a little
Latin passion. |
Brecon Cathedral’s new organist, Mark Duthie, and pianist
Helen Porter had the difficult task of separating five such talented and
varied performers but their choice was unanimous. For his genuine
performance of the music, Joshua Games was the winner of the £100 prize,
with Steffan Raw-Rees receiving the prize for the best performance of a
contemporary work.
2007
The tenth year of the Christ College Young Musician of the Year
competition found the event once again being generously sponsored by
Lloyds TSB, after four years of support from an equally generous but
anonymous benefactor. We were also able to welcome back in Vernon
Handley one of the adjudicators from the inaugural competition in 1997.
On this occasion Dr Handley was joined by David Gedge, soon to retire
after 41 years as organist and choirmaster at Brecon Cathedral.
The
rules of the competition have remained unchanged throughout: each
candidate has to be of Associated Board Grade 8 standard and to play a
programme of not more than twenty minutes, at least one work being in a
contemporary style.
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This year there was more than the usual competition for places
in the final, and the four musicians (pictured to the left) who
won through to this stage entertained us with some really
infectious playing, on an exceptionally diverse range of
instruments – not often will you find the lists entered by a
vocalist, a recorder-player, a saxophonist and a
mandolin-player.
Amy Evans (soprano), having drawn the short straw, opened the
evening with five songs ranging from Purcell to Richard Rodney
Bennett. While she could perhaps have varied her dynamics
a little more, and while not all her words were easily picked up
– at least by this geriatric reviewer – she engaged very well
with her audience, and her sweet tone and obvious enjoyment in
performing did her great credit. |
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Next up was recorder-player Amelie Barrmeyer, new to Christ
College this year from Germany, and already a seasoned
competitor – and frequent winner – in her own country. A
recorder may not have the range, or appeal, of a larger-toned
instrument, but Amelie’s technical mastery and ability to turn
herself into a virtual orchestra, with vocal and percussive
accompaniment to her recorder, were greatly to the audience’s
liking.
Amelie was followed by another German girl, mandolin-player Anna
Grünert. She too had several competition successes already
under her belt, and after a slightly nervy start she was soon
totally absorbed in her playing. The mandolin makes greater
demands of the audience than most instruments by virtue of its
relative quietness, but Anna had us all in rapt attention with
the musicality as well as the technical accuracy of her
performance, especially in an utterly beguiling set of
variations on an Andante by Beethoven.
Steffan Raw-Rees brought proceedings to a close on the most
robust instrument of the evening, his alto saxophone. Steffan,
too, is no stranger to competition: he has made his mark over
the years at a whole series of eisteddfodau, and there was no
doubting his mastery of the instrument – though he could
occasionally be found guilty of faulty intonation in the louder
passages. Perhaps, too, he might have communicated a little more
enjoyment, if only before and after playing – the audience
certainly did in the warmth of their appreciation.
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The adjudicators, while not unduly long in their deliberations,
nevertheless professed to having found it no easy task to come
to a decision – and for once we could agree, for in some ways
the evening had been full of winners. The mandolin was the
overall winner, the recorder took the prize for the best
performance of a modern work – 2-0 to Germany. Well done, Anna
and Amelie; but well done also Amy and Steffan, who had
contributed greatly to a thoroughly satisfying evening.
(Anna Grünert - winner of the competition).
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2006
Christ College was due to welcome back as
this year’s adjudicators the two men who presided over the very first
competition in 1997,Vernon Handley and Mark Foster. In the event Dr
Handley, who some time ago was involved as a taxi passenger in a serious
road accident in Munich and has still not fully recovered from the
injuries he sustained, was unable to join us, and former Assistant
Director of Music Luke Spencer, who had been looking forward to a
pleasant night out as a member of the audience, found himself at very
short notice sitting in judgement alongside Mr Foster. Not that that
should have diminished his pleasure in an hour of music-making which
must surely rank as the best we have heard – as Mark Foster said in his
adjudication, all three contestants were winners, even if they could not
all, as in Alice in Wonderland, be given prizes. 
Both Dae-bin Im (cello - left) and
Matthew Sun (violin -right) began th eir twenty-minute recitals with some
unaccompanied Bach – a bold if risky decision, in that both intonation
and rhythm were not always secure; nevertheless both showed an
impressive mastery of their instruments, and went on to capture the mood
of some more romantic pieces. In Dae-bin’s case this was most apparent
in an eloquent performance of Bloch’s Prayer, while Matthew
played The Happiness of Harvest by the modern Chinese composer Li
with such conviction and expressiveness that it won for him the prize
for the best performance of a contemporary work.
 The
outright winner, however, whose entire programme had the audience
totally captivated and wanting to cheer whenever possible, was trumpeter
Kazuma Furuta. After an attractively idiomatic performance of a jazz
piece b y Wedgwood he was able first to display his quite outstanding
technique in Slavische Fantasie by Höhne, full of gypsy tunes and
rhythms, (a pat on the back here, in particular, for the unobtrusive but
invaluable contribution of accompanist Jonathan Cooper) before showing
that he was equally at home in the classical world of Haydn’s Trumpet
Concerto – though the composer might have been just a little
surprised to hear the opening movement played as a finale.
 Over the years adjudicators have
always stressed the need for players to communicate with their audience,
and this was a lesson which all three competitors had clearly taken to
heart. In another year any one of them would have come away with the
trophy; on this occasion they can all take heart from the fact that they
gave their audience an hour of sheer pleasure.
2005
 The
audience at Christ College's 8th Annual Musician of the Year Competition
were treated to a wonderful concert by five very talented young
musicians from four very different countries - Japan, China, Korea and
Wales.
The music, both played and sung, ranged from Bach to Rodgers and
Hammerstein.
The rules of the competition required each contestant to be of Grade
VIII standard, to play music for up to 20 minutes and to include at
least one piece of 20th century music in their programme, and all five
showed they were not afraid to tackle well-known pieces.
Nonetheless, it was a lovely and evocative piece of unaccompanied violin
music by the Chinese composer Xu which won the prize for best
performance of a 20th century piece.
Korean cellist Dae-Bin Im, an aspiring doctor who only took up the
cello in 2002, was awarded the second prize, for a programme which
included an especially memorable account of Rachmaninov's Vocalise, but
it was young tenor James Davies from Lanwrtyd Wells who overcame the
formidable challenge of two violinists, a cellist and a pianist to win
first prize with a well varied programme which began with Handel's "Where'er
You Walk", included Ireland's famous setting of Masefield's "Sea Fever"
and ended with "O What a Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma.
 The
evening's adjudicator was Christopher Vale, currently sub-principal
bassoonist with the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera and heavily
involved with youth work not only with WNO but also at the Royal Welsh
College of Music and Drama. In his detailed and always helpful
comments to the contestants he made it clear that a significant factor
in James' success was his ability to engage with the audience, who had
only just resisted the temptation to sing along with him as he serenaded
the Oklahoma morning.
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