Celebration of our finest musical talent with a Sixth Form winner!

On Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 November some of our finest musicians took part in our annual Young Pianist of the Year and Young Musician of the Year competitions. The calibre of technique and performance was at its highest this year, making it a very hard decision for Mrs Emma Fisher, Head of Music, and independent adjudicator Mr Nigel Kerry, Director of Music at Our Lady and the English Martyrs (OLEM) church.

At Wednesday’s Young Pianist of the Year evening, there were two categories: Intermediate and Advanced. In the Intermediate Class, performances included Beethoven’s Für Elise and Skryabin’s Prelude in E. Issy H., playing the Skryabin, took the winning title. The Advanced Class comprised performances of Chopin, Wanghua Chu, Liping Wang and Rachmaninoff. The judges had such a hard decision to make that both Gerri S. and Annabelle B. were awarded joint first place.

The Young Musician of the Year competition on the Thursday evening comprised equally ambitious repertoire performed at a very high standard. Maryam G. performed three times and was awarded a Highly Commended for her beautifully simple rendering of Gounod’s Serenade. Henrietta M., Upper Sixth student, was deservedly crowned Young Musician 2017 for a brilliantly accomplished performance from memory of Wieniawski’s Legende, Op. 17.

Drawing the Young Musician of the Year competition to a close, Mr Kerry remarked: “St Mary’s School, Cambridge is incredibly fortunate to have such a wealth of talent within its walls! Everyone played something technically demanding, when there’s always the temptation to take the easier option, and some girls played two or even three pieces all from memory.

Where there’s music, there’s a happy school, or a happy home. I urge all of the girls, whatever they do in life, to never give up music – it will always be there to keep you happy. Each girl who took part should be extremely proud of their musicianship – well done.”