Remote Millfield Musician of the Year Vocal final hits high note

Remote Millfield Musician of the Year Vocal final hits high note

This year brought a delightful remote edition of Millfield Musician of the Year 2021, with over 100 entries, it was a pleasure to see so much talent and determination, even if they were performing from their own homes. Millfield Music School welcomed Magdalen College School’s Director of Music Jon Cullen to adjudicate, providing insightful feedback for each performance.

The Vocal finals were the first to take place and to open the concert, year 9 Tansy singing Handel’s Bel Piacere. A very uplifting rendition, sung with great musicality and tone. Next, Year 10 Beatrice performed One Perfect Moment from “Bring it On” by Tom Kitt. A wonderful performance, Beatrice really captured the character and emotion behind this piece as well as singing with such power. Year 10 Lola follows with John Rutter’s All Things Bright And Beautiful, sung with accuracy whilst providing an elegant sound to compliment the text of the piece. Year 10 Teddy was next singing Empty Chairs at Empty Tables from “Les Misérables” by Claude-Michel Schönberg, showcasing great control in his voice amongst the great range this piece has, Teddy gave an excellent performance. Year 10 Jenny performed To Daffodils by Madeleine Dring, a brilliant performance depicting the delicacy of this piece. Next, year 9 Tansy in the Musical Theatre & Jazz category performed Somewhere from “West Side Story” by Leonard Bernstein, a highly controlled and resonant performance. To end the Junior Class, Augmented 6ths made an appearance with a remote performance of Light in the Hallway by Pentatonix, enriched with lush harmonies creating this dream-like sound world. A moment for us to reflect on these times we have been through, that things will get better, and we will be able to perform music again with each other.

Onto the Senior Class, opening with upper sixth student Annabella performing An die Nachtigall by Johannes Brahms, an outstanding interpretation displaying pronounced musicality and great control in singing in a different language. Lower sixth Angelina follows with Send in the Clowns from “A Little Night Music” by Stephen Sondheim. An incredibly moving performance, Angelina displayed terrific control in her voice, great use of vibrato and tone to compliment the emotion behind this piece. Next saw lower sixth Maddie singing Les Roses D’Ispahan by Gabriel Fauré, showing great dynamic range, sung with grace and performed with accurate diction throughout. Year 11 Jazz follows with A Change in Me from “Beauty and the Beast” by Alan Menken, performed with plentiful emotion that resonated throughout. Lower sixth Esme sung Mozart’s Vedrai Carino from “Don Giovanni”. A remarkable edition of this wonderful piece, Esme showed character, emotion and superlative musicality. Upper sixth Annabella performs in the Musical Theatre & Jazz category singing What Good Would The Moon Be from “Street Scene” by Kurt Weill, a dynamic and impressive performance, Annabella really got into character which was shown through her voice and body language to further enhance the performance and make it enjoyable for the listener to engage with the character she is depicting. Upper sixth Honey was next singing An Die Nachtigall by Brahms, even though it was sung before, Honey still provided a brilliant performance, showing great ability with her voice, especially in the higher range. Lastly lower sixth Caity performed Roxie from “Chicago” by John Kander, a thrilling rendition and highly entertaining performance to round off the vocal finals.

Winners included Lola in the Junior Classical category, Beatrice in Junior Musical Theatre & Jazz and also being awarded the Millfield Vocalist of the Year. Congratulations to Esme for winning the Senior Classical category and Annabella for winning Musical Theatre & Jazz. Anabella was named overall Millfield Vocalist of the Year. As part of the prize for winning the competition, Anabella will now perform a recital at the prestigious Budleigh Music Festival this July.

Watch the full concert - Millfield Musician of the Year Vocalist Final