A superb day of music was had on Wednesday 12 May when our top musicians from our Fourth and Remove Forms competed in our annual Junior Instrumental and Singing Prize Competition. Boys competed for prizes within the following categories: Strings, Woodwind, Brass, Piano, Organ, Percussion and Voice.
Rather than hold the various categories on separate days, as is usual practice, all were held on the same day in front of the six visiting adjudicators to maintain year group bubbles. With all the categories running in one day, the adjudicators were able to listen to all the performances confer and award an overall Bedford School Junior Young Musician of the Year. This prize went to Remove Former Max Leung for a most charming performance of ‘Green Hill’ by Bert Appermont on the euphonium. You can listen to his performance here.
Max, who put in a lot of additional practise after school told us, “I really treasured this competition as I had not participated in an event for more than two years. I was very blessed when I found out I had won, but I thought that was just a bonus. The most enjoyable part was performing in front of the six adjudicators, showing them the best I could do. It is such an opportunity to play in school again, I hope orchestras and bands can resume soon, and I hope to participate in outside school competitions too!”
The full list of Junior Prize Winners are:
Woodind – Edgar Cheung – Flute
Brass – Max Leaung – Euphonium
String – Isaac Dutson – Violin
Piano – Isaac Dutson
Singing – Alexander Olleson
Percussion – Freddie Tucker – Drums
Director of Music, Joss Sanders commented, “We were delighted to host six external adjudicators on Wednesday (all appropriately socially distanced!) to judge our Junior Instrumental and Singing Prize Competitions. We were all extremely encouraged by the standard of the performances across the board – we’ve got some really talented boys in these two year groups!”