Music Festival Success
4 March 2016
On Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 February, a large number of Stoic musicians took part in the annual Milton Keynes Festival of the Arts. The competition took place at Walton High School and the standard of playing this year was the highest I have heard to date, both from Stoics and local musicians alike. Over the course of the weekend, Stoics took part in classes across a wide range of instruments and musical genres and they received some excellent adjudication from distinguished professional musicians such as Gill Johnston, Sam Dunkley and James Kirby. This was a record year in terms of Stoic prize winners and all those who took part represented the School impeccably.
Following their festival success, four Stoics were selected from around 1,000 festival entrants to take part in the Milton Keynes Young Musician of the Year competition on Saturday 5 March at Walton High School. We wish Theodore Hayes (Third Form, Chatham), Jeffrey Au (Third Form, Walpole), Isabel Ward (Fourth Form, Stanhope) and Maria Di Carlofelice (Lower Sixth, West) all the best for their performances this weekend.
I would also like to congratulate Laura Brogden (Upper Sixth, Queen’s) for her outstanding win at the Banbury Young Musician of the Year competition. Following several heats, Laura won the advanced woodwind category for the second year in a row.
I would like to thank all the musicians who took part in the recent music festivals and I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Music Department, Sarah Searle, Keith Brown, Alex Aitken, Nigel Gibbon, Rachel Sherry and Miles Nottage for assisting with travel, accompaniment and logistics over this busy weekend for the Music Department.
Ben Andrew, Head of Keyboard