Young Musician 2023 – District Final – ensemble.
A full house was in the Wolverhampton Music School on March 5th for the District final of the Rotary Young Musician Competition.
7 clubs had entered 9 young musicians from their club level rounds and their performances were simply stunning, causing the adjudicators to describe many of the presentations as “perfection in every way,” and “extremely competent.” They certainly had a difficult task in selecting the winners in each of the instrumental and vocal categories to go forward to the Regional final which is due to be held on March 26th, leading to the National Final on April 23rd in Manchester.
Young Musician 2023 – District Final Pres Sylvia and Catherine Chung.
Our own City of Wolverhampton club’s entrant, 16 year old Catherine Chung who attends Wolverhampton Grammar School, had slightly changed her programme from her choices at the club level round. This time, she earned a huge round of applause as she rendered ‘Domine Deus’ by Vivaldi, ‘Music For A While’ by Purcell and ‘Nell’ by Faure.
Young Musician 2023 District Final – winning vocalist Hattie Candler.
However, after much deliberation, vocal adjudicator Lorna Parkhouse decided that 16 year old Hatti Candler, sponsored by the Rotary Club of The Wrekin won the day with her performances of ‘The Girl In 14G’ by Tesori and Scanlan,’ ‘A Song Of Shadows’ by Walter de la Mare and ‘Love’s Philosophy’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Young Musician 2023 – District Final winning instrumentalist Tom Junde-He.
In the instrumental section, the audience was enthralled as Tom Junde-He, who is only just over 11 years old, gave faultless playings on the piano of ‘Fantasia in C Minor’ by Bach and the instantly recognisable ‘Fantasie Improptu’ in C minor by Chopin.
Tom attends King Edward VI Five Ways School in Birmingham and was sponsored by the Dudley club as a result of his performance in the recent Dudley Festival.
The trophies and winners’ certificates were presented by District Governor Steve Antill who said it had been a truly amazing afternoon of music, adding that he was glad he wasn’t one of the judges!