Nancy is clearly an amazing pianist, and it was lovely to see and hear her play whilst helping out the youngsters.Īfter the interval, we had a collection of vocal solo classes, the Vocal Boys Under 10, Vocal Boys Under 12, the Vocal Boys 15 & Under 18, and finally the Folk Song Solo Under 12.
One thing that I've also enjoyed from the Piano classes is when Nancy adjudicates, she'll get up on the piano to demonstrate the critiques she's talking about to the young performers. The winners of the Jazz classes were Archie Perdue (Under 14), and Benjamin Childs (Under 16) respectively - in this instance however, Archie took home the trophy due to a shared trophy for these classes (I'll say it again, it'd be lovely if every class had a trophy! The festival is always happy for trophy donations!) The Under 14, and the Under 16 Jazz piano class (which share a trophy), also saw some brilliant piano playing of demanding repertoire, from the likes of Dave Brubeck, Mick Cornick and George Gershwin. There was some really characterful playing in the Under 12s in particularly I enjoyed class winner Lara Veillard's performance of Lazy Bear, as well as Darcy Hodgson's performance of Elgars 'Chanson De Matin', for which they both received Distinctions. Some great playing here I was particularly taken with William Kennedy's piece 'Toccata Breve', which kicked off the morning for us in the Under 10s with excitement and flair, earning himself a well-deserved win and an Outstanding. We started off the morning session with a set of piano classes the Under 10 Piano, the Under 12 Piano, the under 14 Jazz Piano, and the Under 16 Jazz piano.