Young Musician Chelmsford heats at St Cedd's School

We held the local heat of the Rotary Young Musician competition on the evening of Friday, 17 January 2020. We normally hold it a week earlier but someone else beat us to our regular booking.

An audience of over seventy people, including Deputy Mayor Janette Potter, listened to our twelve competitors: six instrumentalists and six vocalists. Unfortunately the instrumentalist who had been drawn to perform first was delayed arriving at the venue and couldn’t then find her way in. Rtn Jenny Black went out to fetch her and she was given a later slot to give her time to recover from her journey. One of the accompanists also arrived late but was still in time to accompany the first of his two performers.

Each competitor performed two or three pieces. Most of the instrumental pieces chosen were classical, but we also heard something by Gershwin and some other modern pieces. The vocalists’ choices included songs in German and Italian as well as English.

Twelve is the largest number of competitors we have ever had for the Chelmsford heat. This is a tribute to the increasing standard among young musicians, as entry to this local heat is by invitation only and we are very selective.

It took just over two hours to complete all twelve performances. We then stopped for refreshments and our two adjudicators, David Pickthall and David Sparrow, retired to consider their verdicts.

When the adjudicators came back we returned to our seats while they gave their comments on each individual performance. These were very constructive and helpful. Issy Howell, a cellist, won the instrumentalist category and Ryan Wuyts won the vocalist category. He is the first male to win the vocalist category for many years.

The Deputy Mayor presented certificates and trophies to Issy and Ryan and President Francis presented certificates to the other performers. Ryan and Issy will now go forward to the District Finals to be held in Chelmsford Cathedral on 29 February.

[Update: At the District Finals on 29 February 2020, Issy Howell was Highly Commended for her instrumental performance and Ryan Wuyts won the vocalist section. Ryan would normally have gone on to the Regional Finals but all subsequent stages of the competition have been cancelled because of the coronavirus.]