On Wednesday the final of this year’s Merchant Taylors’ Young Musician of the Year competition took place at Merchant Taylors’ Prep. Adjudicated by Simon Wookey, Head of Instrumental and Vocal Music at St Helen’s School, Northwood, there were 21 Finalists, 11 from the Prep and 10 from Taylors’, with two boys performing twice in the Final (one from each school). During the preliminary rounds, adjudicated by Mr Couldridge (Merchant Taylors’) and Mr Stuart (Merchant Taylors’ Prep), there were a total of 83 entries from 74 boys.
he evening began with the strings class, in which we heard music by Hubay, Bach, and Telemann. The class was won by Alex Z. (MTP), who played Hubay’s Bolero. The woodwind class followed, with a diverse range of music, from Mozart to the meme song Rush E. It was the playing of the former that piqued the adjudicator’s interest, and Xiling W. (MTP) won this class. Next came the brass class, where Alexander B-T (MTP) fought off tough competition from Yugo F (MTS, U3rds) to win, with his deft performance of Greenwood’s The Acrobat. Rafferty S (MTS, 3rds) convincingly won his class, the percussion class, with Ray Davis’s You Really Got Me. The guitar class took us to many different places, with Zakir A.’s (MTS, 3rds) evocative Spice Trail, Adam H.’s (MTS, U3rds) dancing Sueno, Nathan I.’s (MTP) lyrical Musette, and Arman M.’s (MTS, 3rds) enchanting Nightfall.
In the end, it was Adam who took the prize for the class. The standout vocalist of the evening was Ethan D. (MTP), who rightly won the class with his interpretation of the classic song Somewhere over the Rainbow. The final class of the evening showed huge talent in all three pianists, opening with Kai T. (MTS, U3rds) playing Chopin’s fiendish Ballade No.2 in F. This was followed by Nostalgia by P. E. Wolf, played beautifully by Jayde L (MTP). The performances ended with Josh S.’s (MTS, U3rds) performance of the technically demanding Prelude in G# minor by Rachmaninoff. This final class, and the overall competition, was won by Kai T (MTS, U3rds).
