Young Musician Competition Regional Final, 2023

A full house was in the Wolverhampton Music School on March 26th for the Regional (cluster 3) final of the Rotary Young Musician Competition, hosted by the Rotary club of The City of Wolverhampton.

4 Districts, 1060,1070,1210 and 1220 had entered 7 young musicians from their District finals rounds and their performances were simply stunning, causing the adjudicators to describe many of the presentations as “perfection in every way,” and “of an exceptional standard” They certainly had a difficult task in selecting the winners in each of the instrumental and vocal categories to go forward to the National final to be Cheethams School of Music in Manchester.

From District 1070, pianist Felipe, sponsored by the Rotary club of Bourne in District 1070 gave an excellent performance of ‘Sonata in C major’ by Haydn and ‘Rondo Capriccioso ‘by Mendelssohn.

Sadly, vocalist Heidi, sponsored by the Rotary club of Melton Mowbray in District 1070 had been taken ill the previous evening and was unable to appear. As her mother told organiser Richard Green, she was “bitterly disappointed having come this far in the competition” 

However, after much deliberation, vocal adjudicator Simon Whitmore decided that 16 year old Hatti, sponsored by the Rotary Club of The Wrekin in District 1210 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.

In the instrumental section, the audience was amazed as Ammera, sponsored by the Rotary club of Lichfield St, Chad in District 1060 gave faultless playings on the piano of ‘Novellettes in C major and Bb minor’ by Francis Poulenc and a piece which caused many smiles, ‘The Cat and the Mouse’ by Aaron Copland, so Ameera will be going forward to the National Final.

This was Rotary at is best, encouraging, supporting and recognising the terrific talents of so many of our young people.