Oswestry Youth Music Festival 2013 turned out to be another excellent competition this year with a number of our 
pupils competing across diverse competition classes.
The competition ran over four days and began on Thursday with a number of vocal soloists including Alfie Heasmer Jones, and Aarifa Khanom performing solo pieces later followed by Vanessa Suen.
The fierce competition in these popular classes continued into the evening with Alisa Gertsovskaya and Natasha Holmes competing in both the vocal solo and musicals classes.
Paige Baker was to see success that evening gaining a second place in the vocal solo class and the other competitors all achieved highly with merit and commended results.
The crowning achievement of the evening however was Riyani Sidek who performed in the under 25 class and achieved a merit and was put forward to the finals which took place on Sunday.
Friday saw continued high levels of competition with Richard Walsh competing in the string classes as well as Igor Maleyko who fought a very hard battle to win a second place performing on electric guitar.
There were also piano classes with Richard Christie achieving third place set against intense competition. The Bellan House choir took part in the 11 and under Youth Choir class for the first time coming second with their contrasting pieces.
The final day of the general classes saw a number of pupils performing in the piano classes including Hector Robb, Kizzy Lumley Edwards and Alixandra Heasmer-Jones. Alixandra and Kizzy also took part in various vocal and string classes gaining distinctions and merits in the under 12 and under 9 categories.
There was no end to Richard’s efforts on the day as he went on to win both junior and senior percussion classes taking him through to two places in the final competition.
The finals were then set with great excitement and although neither won the overall competition Richard Christie did compete in both the junior and senior competitions, performing on drums; and Riyani Sidek performed songs in the senior section. The standard of competition was incredibly high and it was a great event this year.
In the final honours it was Richard Christie, Alixandra Heasmer-Jones and Kizzy Lumley Edwards who were awarded trophies for winning their respective classes.
Well done to everyone who competed, there was an excellent level of preparation and competition and everyone who competed was a credit to the school.