Jonathan Robinson crowned the 2010 Christ College Young Musician of the Year.

Jonathan Robinson (Orchard House) won the 2010 Christ College Young Musician of the Year which took place on Friday 15th January in the Memorial Hall at Christ College.

 

 

The adjudicators also made the following awards.

• Prize for best performance of a piece written before 1810 was awarded to Anna John. 
• Prize for best performance of a pice written after 1910 was awarded to Robert Evans.

 

 

A full report to follow.

 

 

We are grateful that Creative Risk Solutions have agreed to sponsor this competition over the next three years and we were delighted that Client Director of Creative Risk Solutions, Jan Wilkins, was able to join us at the event.

 

 

Competitors with the Mayor of Brecon and the adjudicators

The competitors were attempting to follow in the footsteps of last year's winner, cellist Ben Evans, and the winner, Jonathan Robinson, was presented with The Tom Dargavel Trophy and will hold the title of the 2010 Christ College Young Musician of the Year.

 

 

Tom Dargavel was Area Director for Lloyds TSB Commercial Service and he initiated the first sponsorship of the Musician of the Year competition back in the late 1990's. Sadly Tom passed away suddenly in 2006. It is fitting that his early support which made this competition what it is today should be remembered by naming the trophy in his honour.

 

 

The annual Christ College Musician of the Year competition is open to fifth and sixth form students who are working at a high level. Each competitor performs a balanced programme lasting ten to fifteen minutes.

 

The Competitors

Anna John (voice)

• If my complaints could passions move (Dowland)
• Voi che sapete from Il Nozze di Figaro (Mozart)
• First Mercy (Warlock)
• The Man I Love (Gershwin)

Anna is currently studying for her GCSE exams; she is a talented linguist with a keen interest in the Sciences and is a member of the senior Hermes Initiative. Anna has been singing since the age of seven; her inspiration was her grandfather who was a bass with the Welsh National Opera. In the future Anna would also like to venture into the world of opera, but dreams of studying Architecture at Cambridge. Since joining Christ College, Anna has taken on singing parts in the school plays Oliver! and Fiddler on the Roof and has been a member of the Chapel Choir, Chamber Choir and Female Choir.

 

 

Daniel Kim (piano)

• Indigo (Yiruma)
• Nocturne in E flat (Chopin)
• Impromptu in A flat (Schubert)

Daniel came to Christ College two years ago from his native South Korea. He has played the piano since the age of three and has recently started to learn the organ as well. A keen musician, he sings tenor in the Male Voice Choir, Chapel Choir and Chamber Choir, but also enjoys outdoor pursuits such as kayaking and mountain biking. He hopes to study Maths, Further Maths, Spanish and RS next year.

 

 

 

 

 

Jonathan Robinson (voice)

• If music be the food of love (Purcell)
• Sea Fever (Ireland)
• Silent Noon (Vaughan Williams)
• The Vagabond (Vaughan Williams)
• A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square (Sherwin)

Jonathan is currently in his first year of A-levels, studying Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. He is a long-standing member of the Chapel Choir, where he was Head Chorister as a treble. Now a baritone, he sings bass in Chapel Choir, Chamber Choir and Male Voice Choir. An enthusiastic actor, he played a highly acclaimed Bottom in the school's recent production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is also interested in Philosophy and Psychology, which he hopes to study at Durham University.

 

 

Robert Evans (trumpet)

• Concerto in E flat: first and second movements (Haydn)
• Tango Argentino (Gorb)

Robert is in his final year at Christ College, studying Mathematics, Physics and Music. He started to play the trumpet when he was nine whilst living in Brunei. Robert has also lived in England, Australia, Singapore and in Dubai. He plans to read Physics at university next year. He has other interests apart from music and his trumpet, which include cycling and running. He will be running the Brighton Marathon in April, to raise money for UNICEF. He would welcome your generous sponsorship!

 

 

 

There was a guest apperanace by Kaori Takada, an exchange student from Meikei High School, Tsukuba, Tokyo will perform the second movement of Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata.

 

The Adjudicators

We were delighted to welcome Andrew Cleary and Rachel Podger as our adjudicators.

 

Andrew Cleary is Director of Music at The Portsmouth Grammar School, Assistant Sub-Organist at Portsmouth Cathedral, Director of Portsmouth Cathedral Girls' Choir and Musical Director of the Portsmouth Festival Choir. He is an examiner for OCR and Edexcel, an HMC/ISI Schools' Inspector and a member of the Kings Theatre Trust.

Andrew was chorister at York Minster and later at St Albans' Cathedral then, in 1987, he was appointed Organ Scholar at Norwich Cathedral and at the University of East Anglia, where he read Music. After graduating in 1990, he studied at the Royal College of Music in London and was appointed Assistant Organist at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London.In 1992 he was appointed Organist and Director of the Chapel Choir at Pangbourne College from where he moved in 1994 to Oundle School, becoming Director of Music in 1995. He left Oundle in 2001 to take up the position of Director of Music at Dean Close School and moved to The Portsmouth Grammar School in January 2005.

 

Rachel Podger is one of the most creative talents to emerge in the field of period performance over the last decade and has established herself as a leading interpreter of the music of the Baroque and Classical periods. She was educated in Germany and in England at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is visiting Professor of Baroque Violin and Fellow of The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, she teaches at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, and has recently taken up the Michaela Comberti Chair for Baroque Violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London where she is also an Honorary Member RAM.

 

Rachel's recordings of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin and his Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord (with Trevor Pinnock) were both awarded first place by the BBC's “Building a Library” programme. Her recording of Telemann's Twelve Fantasies for Solo Violin won the prestigious Diapason d'Or and her 2003 recording of Vivaldi's 12 violin concertos “La Stravaganza” also received the Diapason d'Or as well as winning the 2003 Gramophone Award for Best Baroque Instrumental Recording.