59th Dudley Festival of Music, Drama and Dance winners
Over the course of the last two weekends, Winterfold has been competing at the 59th Dudley Festival of Music, Drama and Dance.
This year, the School has accumulated a record breaking 10 trophies for individual and group classes. Both the Winterfold House School Chamber and Girls’ Harmony Choir came home with The Coseley Male Voice Choir Trophy and the Cecil Drew Trophy for ‘excellent choral work’.
The Girls’ Harmony Choir in particular, wowed the adjudicators, as they attained a phenomenal 91 marks from 100 for their un-conducted close harmony renditions of Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree and For Good from the musical Wicked. The adjudicator remarked that for that particular performance, she could not continue to write, as she had to sit and listen to their skillful performance.
During the first weekend for children taking part in individual vocal and instrumental classes, Winterfold was just as successful. Olivia Leung attained first place and the Helen Bailey Cup in her woodwind class with her beautiful, ‘thought provoking and well-articulated’ ‘Rondeau’, played on the clarinet. Alex Witt then stormed into first place playing Allegro Appasionato on the saxophone – bringing home the Solihull School Saxophone Trophy. The adjudicator remarked that Alex had a remarkable range with good dynamics and clear tone. William Phillips engaged the room with his trumpet playing, coming home with the James Hough Trophy.
In class 94, Brass Solo Grade 2-3, Winterfold held all candidate places. However, although all four candidates played beautifully and were all very closely marked, there could only be one winner – that was Charlie Maguire on the Trombone, playing the toe tapping Tennessee Rag. Charlie came home with the Sedgley Townswomen’s Guild Trophy. Luke Culwick impressed his adjudicator with his ‘magnificent tone’ on his E flat bass, winning the Amblecote Trophy in his category.
The last weekend of the Festival was just as successful as the first. Rosie Brookes won the Roland Dean Trophy for her beautiful portrayal of the classic song The Water is Wide arranged by Bullard. This was not Rosie’s only success, as she later went on to win the Violin Solo class for children 12 years and under. For this, she played Concerto in G Op 3 No 3 1st Movement, Allegro by Vivaldi, from memory. The adjudicator remarked that although the standard of the class had been extremely high, with many of the competitors playing Grade 7 pieces, Rosie was ‘clearly, and without doubt’ worthy of the Evelyn Cliff Cup.
Olivia Leung sang a Grade 6 song in the Vocal Solo 11-12 years class. Needless to say, Olivia’s performance was truly magical, as she mesmerised the audience with Chilcott’s Time of Snow, for which Olivia won the Freda Round Cup.