Felsted School’s annual Musician of the Year competition brought together over 80 individual performances across a wide variety of instruments and singing styles.
The event was a joyful day of music celebration and a fantastic opportunity for Felsted musicians to showcase their talents. The Prizewinners’ Concert in the evening gave the finalists from each category one last chance to shine for the overall prize of ‘Felsted Musician of the Year 2023’. This year the accolade went to singer and aspiring actress Olivia M.
Felsted were delighted to welcome Nicholas McCarthy, a professional concert pianist, to adjudicate. Born without a right hand, Nicholas was the first left-hand-only pianist to graduate from London’s Royal College of Music in its 130-year history. He is a champion of the dynamic and brave world of left hand alone repertoire, a repertoire that first came into being in the early 19th Century and developed rapidly following the First World War as a result of the many injuries suffered on the battlefield. Nicholas has performed extensively around the world with critical acclaim in both recital tours and with major orchestras. He is passionate about encouraging new audiences to classical music and is committed to working with young people through music education.
Nicholas had a tough job ahead of him to critique and score all the outstanding performances but he gave skillful and encouraging feedback to every student. In the end, a lively performance of the classic show tune, ‘Life is a Cabaret’, won Year 13 weekly boarder Olivia the title of ‘Felsted Musician of the Year 2023’.
Olivia commented; “I was absolutely thrilled when Mr McCarthy called my name and said I’d won! Everyone performed so well, it was definitely a tough competition, but this has given me the confidence to continue performing. When I leave Felsted, I hope to go on to study acting and hopefully go into a career of performing.”
Director of Music at Felsted School, Mr William Warns commented; “It was a full day of fantastic music making with over 80 individual performances from students in Years 9 – 13. There was a real sense of supportive camaraderie among the performers, many of whom were entering the competition for the first time. Many were nervous about competing for such high acclaim but all performed brilliantly”.
Chris Townsend, Head of Felsted, comments “We encourage every student at the school, even the youngest Felstedians, to explore music and play an instrument. It is fundamental for our students to receive a genuinely rounded education, and the performing arts are key to this. We want to ensure our students are able to go on to make a contribution, or at least develop an appreciation for cultural life in the future.” Specialist tuition in a number of instruments, as well as voice, is offered both in school and through a partnership with Junior Guildhall, which sees talented pupils attending sessions at the London conservatoire on Saturdays.
Felsted has its own state-of-the-art music school on campus, which includes a professional quality auditorium, recording studio and percussion suite. Such high quality facilities often see ‘Old Felstedians’, turned professional musicians, return back to Felsted to record their music. First Prize winner at the 2022 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, Mezzo-soprano OF Esme Bronwen-Smith (bn03-13) and pianist and composer OF Christopher Weston (fa88-98) recently did just this when they returned to Felsted’s music school to record Esme singing Mozart’s Non so più – Le nozze di Figaro, among other songs.
To view a video montage of the various Musician of the Year performances or to learn more about music at Felsted visit: www.felsted.org/music.