Musical 'Tour de Force'

Competition was fierce in this year’s Muriel De Vinny and Elsie Swinton competitions, with the finals hailed as a “musical tour de force” by Mark Slater, headmaster of The Leys.

Paul Trepte, Director of Music at Ely Cathedral, judged the preliminary rounds and selected the finalists. The adjudicator for the finals was Ruth McCartney MBE, Director of Music at Methodist College Belfast, whose choirs have won many national competitions.

The Junior Muriel De Vinny Competition was won by bassoon player Timothy Petkovic (Year 10), who played the Third movement of Ridout’s Sonata for Bassoon and Piano, with clarinettist Rory Purvis (Year 10) highly commended. Cellist Gregory Miles (Year 11), who won the Junior Muriel de Vinny in 2009 and 2010, won the Senior level contest this year with his rendition of Tarantelle by Van Goens.

The finalists in the Elsie Swinton Singing Competition performed a wide range of music, from classical to musical theatre and film tunes. The winner was Alexandra Gray (Year 10), who sang She’s Like The Swallow by Cassils and I Cain’t Say No from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Emily Shea-Simonds (Year 8), Gregory Barber (Year 10) and Simon Bagg (L6) were highly commended.