Young Musician

MAIDSTONE

YOUNG MUSICIAN

COMPETITION

Saturday 19 January 2019 Programme £2

ROTARY CLUB of MAIDSTONE DAWN PATROL

Registered Charity Number 297018 Good luck from Maidstone Youth Music Society (MYMS) to everyone linked to the Maidstone Young Musician 2019. Maidstone Youth Music Society (MYMS) has existed for 45 years and provides a music centre for young people aged 6-19 from 30 schools across the borough on Friday afternoons and evenings at Invicta Grammar School. We currently run eight ensembles: Alpha Band; Orchestra for All; Youth Strings; MYMS Voices [two choirs]; Beta Percussion Ensemble; Maidstone Youth Wind Orchestra; and Maidstone Youth Orchestra. Come and join us at MYMS and enjoy the thrill of playing high quality music, together with making friends who may well be lifelong. Our students successfully combine their music-making each week with their studies and the vast majority then go on to university, reading a wide range of subjects, and continuing their musical journeys. We are delighted that the Maidstone Young Musician of the Year 2018 [Joseph Pickard, cornet] and the Runner-Up [Emma Beniston, violin] are both MYMS players. Please contact Richard Gretton, MYMS Manager for more information either by email on [email protected] or by telephone on 07802-425022 Website: www.myms.org.uk

2 Introduction

Welcome to the Maidstone Young Musician of the Year 2019 competition! We hope you enjoy the evening. Congratulations to the eight finalists, their parents and teachers. Selection was made at the preliminary round, Maidstone Music Festival. Our three judges now have the task of choosing a winner and a runner-up. We are honoured that the Mayor of Maidstone has agreed to present the awards. The event is also the gateway to competing at district, regional and national levels for the title of Rotary Young Musician, and for this the best instrumentalist and vocalist of the evening have the opportunity to go forward. As well as organizing this competition, Dawn Patrol is raising funds this year for Safe Anaesthesia Worldwide and Medical Detection Dogs. We also help in the local community through practical acts of service. You are invited to explore whether Dawn Patrol might be for you! Our meetings are over breakfast. The two other local Rotary clubs are Maidstone, (meeting at lunchtime) and Riverside. (meeting for supper). Together we co-operate as ‘Rotary in Maidstone’. Clinton Davis, President, Maidstone Rotary ‘Dawn Patrol’

Rotary

Rotary is one of the world’s largest and most successful global membership and humanitarian service organizations, with 1.2 million members in over 200 countries. Rotary fights disease. Since 1985, its key humanitarian priority has been to rid the world of polio. Rotary spearheaded the campaign at a time when there were over 1,000 cases a day in 125 countries, paralysing and even killing children. Today, the number of cases is down by 99.9%. Providing clean water and hygiene facilities is another aspect of Rotary work, as is the expansion of quality healthcare, protecting children from disease and building sustainable health solutions. Another important role of Rotary is in the context of natural disasters, ensuring that money raised goes to local Rotarians directly bringing relief to people in need. The stock of shelter boxes, providing families with the main items they need for their initial months, is constantly replenished. Education is another major interest, Rotary’s goal being to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy around the world. This has also resulted in the various youth competitions run nationally, including Rotary Young Musician. Rotary seeks to promote world peace, advancing goodwill and understanding across the world by training local leaders to support long- term peacebuilding. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Maidstone Rotary Dawn Patrol is grateful to the following for their help and support:

Advertisers Absolute Creative Print, Aford Awards, Cobham Hall School, Earl Street Employment, The Gallagher Group, Gullands, Maidstone Youth Music Society, The Piano Shop and Sutton Valence School

The Maidstone Music Festival for holding the first round of the competition

Nancy Litten for acting as music consultant and compiling the programme

Chas Bedford for photography

Elaine Craven for the use of her boardroom as a venue for the photo-shoot

Auctioneer John Oakley for conducting the fundraising Auction of Promises

The Mayor of Maidstone

Councillor David Naghi

Talent is rife within the County Town, and as the Mayor of Maidstone, I am lucky to meet and watch performers from all kinds of disciplines. I am therefore very pleased to be associated with Maidstone Young Musician 2019, a contest that showcases those with a musical gift, and encourages them to pursue a career, or further advancement in this field.

I am a keen advocate of promoting the successes of our younger members of society and believe that an opportunity such as this acts as an advertisement for just how much our youth can achieve; and inspires other young people to put their skills in the spotlight. I wish the Maidstone entries the very best of luck at both the local and national levels of the contest.

5 JUDGES

Kevin Ashman

Kevin is an experienced music professional with wide experience of many facets of musical activity. He is a brass performer, teacher, and choral conductor, being musical director of Paddock Wood Choral Society.

As a performer, he regularly plays trumpet, piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn and cornet with a variety of orchestras, brass and concert bands and other ensembles. He has recorded as a soloist on several CDs and featured as a soloist in prestigious international concert venues such as Toronto's Roy Thompson Hall, Symphony Hall, Chicago, and The Royal Albert Hall and Barbican Concert Hall in London.

He is frequently called upon to organise, direct and perform in music groups for a variety of musical activities, including concerts, civic events and commercial media activities. Examples of these include BBC TV's 'EastEnders' and 'The Wrong Mans' as well as 'Spooks', 'The Greatest Store in the World' and The Co-op’s 2014 Christmas advertising campaign. He has organised and managed major events in venues such as London's Royal Albert Hall and Birmingham's Symphony Hall, liaising with management, performers and conductors to ensure that the event runs smoothly. He has organised international tours for UK groups and also arranged and hosted visits by international groups who have toured the UK.

His current role also involves managing copyright compliance for Salvation Army music publications, negotiating permissions and royalty rates for the use of Third- Party copyrights. He also represents The Salvation Army on the Christian Music Publishers' Association.

Andy Millest

Andy Millest BMus (Hons), PGCE, studied Music at Sheffield University before going on to teacher training at Cambridge University (Christ’s College). He immediately returned to Kent to take up a teaching post at his old school. From 1990 to 2016 he held the post of Director of Music at The Rochester Grammar School where the Music Department continues to contribute greatly to the fine reputation of that highly successful school. In 2004 RGS became one of the first two schools in the UK to gain specialist status for Music. Many of his capable students have gone on to music-based careers.

Andy has directed many notable events including, in recent years, Faure’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Dickens with a Twist and stage musicals such as Into the Woods, Singin’ in the Rain, and Little Women.

Since September 2016 he has discovered the joy of working part time with the wonderful students at Abbey Court, Medway's school for students with severe and profound learning difficulties.

In September 2017 Andy helped establish the first Music Man Project (MMP) sessions held in Kent. MMP is a weekly music school for adults with learning disabilities. Many of the current 55 or so members will be performing at the Royal Albert Hall in April.

He has conducted the Kent County Junior Choir since 1999, plays cornet in the Gillingham Salvation Army Band and conducts the Gillingham Songsters. His personal best in the Parkrun (begun last January) stands at 26min 52sec.

Lucia D’Avanzo

Lucia graduated from the Masters course at the Royal Academy of Music in 2012 and with a First Class degree from the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in June 2010. Teachers have included Thomas Kemp, Pavel Fischer and Mateja Marinkovich, and she has played in Master Classes taken by Wen Zhou Li and Ivry Gitlis. Lucia also has strong musical connections with Kent, where she studied at the Kent Music Academy (KMA) from 2000–2006 and developed a love of orchestral and chamber music. Her KMA string quartet was chosen to represent the centre as part of a tour of Mauritius, where they appeared on Mauritian Television and performed for the British Ambassador. Lucia held the title of Maidstone Young Musician of the Year in 2005 and was the leader of the Kent County Youth Orchestra for two years, working with esteemed conductors such as Peter Stark, Kenneth Woods and Guillermo Scarabino.

Whilst in Manchester, Lucia progressed to the final round of the RNCM’s Norman George Violin Scholarship and was chosen as one of the first students to perform in the college’s new Monday Lunchtime Recital series playing Leoš Janácek’s Sonata for violin and piano. Lucia loves organising concerts and performing neglected works. Her third-year recital featured Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto no. 3, op. 58, and in her Final Recital she performed Violin Sonata no. 4 by Charles Ives alongside a work she commissioned especially by Greenwich-based composer Lucy Smith called The Way of the Ostrich. In November 2009 she organised a concert in Emmanuel Church, Didsbury featuring large ensemble repertoire, including the recently-discovered String Octet by Max Bruch.

Since moving to London Lucia has performed with BBC Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera and the Co-Opera Company. She remains heavily involved with chamber music, organising quarterly chamber concerts at St Thomas More Church in West Malling. Her violin-viola ensemble Duo Figaro performs at recitals around the country and she continues performing at public and private functions with her string ensemble Astley Strings.

PARTICIPANTS

9 PARTICIPANTS

LUNA BOLTON is 9 years old and has been playing the violin since just before her 4th birthday. She took to the instrument quite quickly and has enjoyed playing ever since. She currently attends Holmewood House School near Tunbridge Wells, and regularly takes part in the school orchestra and concerts. She has been taught by Imogen Williamson for a number of years. Luna has taken exams from grades 2 to 7, all of which she has passed with a distinction.

Borowski: Adoration Hubay: Bolero Accompanist: Mark Bromley

ELIZABETH KNOWLES , aged 11, is in the first year of her music scholarship at Valley Park School. She is currently preparing for her ABRSM Grade 4 singing under the tutelage of soprano Helen Bailey. Elizabeth is a member of the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain and the Kent County Junior Choir and has performed in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, The Gulbenkian in Canterbury and Rochester Cathedral. Her first solo competition was at the recent Maidstone Music Festival in November. Elizabeth also enjoys playing the piano, creating adaptations of pop songs, drama club, and reading. . Giordani: Caro Mio Ben Skin: Rag ‘n Bone Man Accompanist: Carla de Jong

JUSTIN MYLES, 17 years old, is in the sixth form at Ifield. His teacher is Sue Greenham, who helped him achieve distinction in his grade 6 piano exam despite his autism. He plays at a variety of functions, including school performances, concerts, church services, weddings, and funerals. He enjoys a wide range of music but often listens to Motown and 80's R&B. He has perfect pitch and is a gifted improviser, particularly in jazz.

Joanna McGregor: Lowside Blues Nigel Hess: Ladies in Lavender

ANNABEL BENISTON is 14 years old and learns the double bass with Cathy Elliott. She is an active musician within her school, playing the double bass and the cornet, as well as singing, and plays in the Maidstone Youth Music Society. She successfully auditioned for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in September, and has just come back from her first course, performing concerts in amazing venues like the Barbican in London. This follows her 3 years in the Kent County Youth Orchestra, where she ended her final course playing the famous double bass solo in Mahler’s First Symphony. Outside of music, Annabel has just completed her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award, and also enjoys volunteering at her local Brownie unit.

Bottesini: Reverie in D Bensted: Four Episodes. for Double Bass; Finale Accompanist: Emma Beniston

GEORGE HALL is 11 and is a student in year 7 at Dane Court Grammar School. He is a keen horn player, having passed his grade 7 horn with distinction in July 2018. He loves to perform as a soloist, either vocally or as an instrumentalist , and performs in school groups, the Southern Counties Youth Band and the National Children’s Brass Band of Great Britain. When he is not involved in music, George spends his time training for and winning tennis tournaments.

Peter Graham: Whirlwind Peter Graham: A Time for Peace Accompanist: Trevor Brearley

THOMAS HALL (aged 13) lives for music making and is very excited to be performing in Maidstone Young Musician. He is a member of the National Children’s Brass Band, the Medway Band and is principal euphonium of the Southern Counties Youth Band. He attends Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama on a Saturday, where he also studies trombone.

When Thomas is not at school, he only stops making music (including composing) to eat and sleep.

Senaille: Introduction and Allegro Spiritoso James Curnow: Rhapsody for Euphonium Accompanist: Trevor Brearley

LUCY COLBERT Lucy is 15 years old and is currently in year 11 at Cobham Hall School. She is working towards her grade 8 ABRSM singing exam; her singing teacher is Matthew Haas. Lucy has her bronze LAMDA award for drama and is grade 4 in ballet and tap; she is also at intermediate level musical theatre and modern dance. She loves watching musicals and plays in the West End and hopes one day to perform at some of the beautif ul theatres there.

Dowland: Flow my Tears Schonberg: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables Accompanist: Matthew Haas

MATTHEW HUA My name is Matt Hua, I’m an eighteen-year-old pianist from Maidstone Grammar School. I began studying the piano at age 6, having completed all my grades by age 14. I’m currently working towards the ARSM diploma with Nancy Litten. Other than studying the piano I also play drums, which I play in a band. I also teach younger students the piano, something I’ve really enjoyed doing for the past two years. I hope to attend the University of York in September next year to read Music and Sound Recording, and I’m very exciting about that.

Mozart: Sonata in Bb K570 Mov. 1, Allegro Chopin: Nocturne in E op. 62 no 2

She is currently working toward

13 GUEST ARTISTS

Joseph Pickard, winner 2018

Joseph was thrilled to win the title of Maidstone Young Musician of the Year for 2018. He enjoyed several successes at the Maidstone Music Festival again this year including his first venture into the world of composition with a brass quintet. He has had many individual performances in the last 12 months including as a guest soloist for the Vigo Singers Christmas concert. He is very excited to be playing for you tonight and hearing the performances of this year’s competitors. In September, Joseph was promoted to Principal Trumpet in the Maidstone Wind Symphony. He has continued his studies on trumpet at the Junior Department of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where he has had many opportunities including the chance to play improvised solos with the Big Band and to develop his skills on natural trumpet. In July, he took part in a recording called ‘For the Love of Music’ with London based photographer Kelvin Murray. In December he played for a production of Guys and Dolls. He also plays with Southern Counties Youth Band, now holding the soprano cornet seat. He successfully auditioned for the National Children’s Brass Band of Great Britain in October and has now been invited to join them in 2019 on soprano cornet.

Arban: Fantasie & Variations on ‘The Carnival of Venice’. Accompanist Trevor Brearley.

Kent Youth Recorders

Kent Youth Recorders (KYR) was founded in 1986 by Robert Hoult. Players are chosen from within Kent and range in age from 10 to 21. The repertoire chosen ranges from the Renaissance to current modern day using all of the different sizes of recorder. The ensemble has previously played at many prestigious concert venues in England and abroad including The Royal Festival Hall as part of Music for Youth, Salisbury Cathedral, and Birmingham Conservatoire. Many of the former players have become professional musicians or are in the music industry. The current musical director is Karen Barton-Holman, who conducts the ensemble this evening (with Nancy Litten accompanying.)

Trad. arr. Dunhill: Early One Morning Trad. arr. Stanford: Quick! We have but a Second Brian Bonsor: Three into Five Cole Porter arr. Davey: Begin the Beguine Alan Bullard: Tripple Fipple

Joseph Pickard Kent Youth Recorders

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Maidstone Young Musician Winners (the competition was in abeyance 2016-17)

1996 Fiona Wight Professional singer, composer and PR writer www.fionawight.co.uk 1997 Robert Simmons Violinist, member of Estilo String Quartet, Royal Ballet Sinfonia (Birmingham Royal Ballet) and freelance for shows and orchestras https://encoremusicians.com/Robert-Simmons 1998 Chris Spencer Freelance clarinettist in London and the West End, previously Principal clarinettist in the Band of the Grenadier Guards www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-spencer 1999 Natalie Holt Composer: Natalie won an Ivor Novello award in 2015, was made an associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2017, and nominated for an Emmy award in 2017 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Holt 2000 Harry Winstanley Previously in the Hong Kong Sinfonietta; now a busy freelance flautist based in London; guest principal with major orchestras at home and abroad http://www.harrywinstanleymusic.com 2005 Lucia D’Avanzo One of our judges tonight! Read about her on page 8. http://luciadavanzo.co.uk/biography/ 2006 Elspeth Robertson Concerto recorder soloist and Principle Baroque oboe player with the RCM Baroque orchestra https://handelhendrix.org/musician/elspeth-robertson- 2007 Grace Scott Deuchar Oboist, currently teaching and playing in London. Plays modern and baroque oboe. https://encoremusicians.com/Grace-Scott-Deuchar 2008 Kirsty Nimmo Flute teacher at Roedean School, Brighton, Woodwind Specialist at Surrey Arts https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-nimmo-4401583b/?originalSubdomain=uk 2009 Sarah Hughes In June this year, Sarah, a Senior Organ Scholar, gave her finals recital programme for cello and piano at Brasenose College, Oxford. 2010 Joe Atkin-Reeves Freelance clarinettist, saxophonist and flautist, having played in the Cadogan Hall, St David's Hall, Hackney Empire, BBC Maida Vale, on Radio 3 and in musicals touring the UK and abroad https://www.joeatkinreeves.com 2011 Sarah Johnson Oxford graduate and freelance chamber and orchestral horn player (including the Southbank Sinfonia); holds the horn Chair in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra https://www.southbanksinfonia.co.uk/musicians-profile/10035/sarah-johnston 2012 Tabitha Reynolds Operatic and oratorio mezzo-soprano, winning scholarships to continue further studies at the Royal Academy of Music http://www.tabithareynolds.com 2013 Laurence Long Organ and piano soloist Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music. Won the Stephen Corry Award in the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition and the Woodard Musician of the Year. encoremusicians.com/laurencelong 2014 Will Scott Classical and electric guitarist based in London, he recently graduated with First Class Honours from the Royal College of Music. https://www.willscottguitarist.co.uk 2015 George Harrington After achieving outstanding A-level results in 2017, George is studying Music with Philosophy at Southampton University, where he is on the committee of the Symphonic Wind Orchestra. 2018 – Joseph Pickard See what Joseph has been doing since his win last year on page 14. 16

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Eight talented youngsters compete for the title of 'Maidstone Young Musician of the Year'. Six are pictured here: Matthew Hua (piano), Annabel Beniston (double bass), Thomas Hall (euphonium), Elizabeth Knowles (singing), George Hall (tenor horn) and (piano) and Luna Lucy Bolton Colbert (violin). (singing). Also The participating event, which are Justin is organised Myles by Maidstone Rotary Dawn Patrol, takes place on Saturday 19 January 2019 at Maidstone Grammar School for Girls at 7.00pm.