Oswestry School has record number of entries at Oswestry Youth Music Festival

27 Mar 2018

This year saw record numbers of pupils from Bellan House and Oswestry School entered into the Oswestry Youth Music Festival. 42 boys and girls from the Prep Department made themselves heard by means of a variety of instruments and voices while a strong contingent from the senior school did the same. From these entries the children achieved an outstanding 12 First Place awards across a variety of disciplines.

Year 4 pupils Scarlett Forbes (flute), Akaash Das (singing), Oscar Polden (drums) and Theo Woodman (piano) all received Firsts. In Year 5 pupils Wang Qi (violin) and Freddie Heasmer-Jones (piano) also received Firsts along with First Form pupil Harris Morgan-Booth (piano). Wang Qi, Freddie and Harris went on to perform in the Finals Concert at Christchurch on Sunday 4 March.

Sixth Form pupil Tom Barnes won the Cherrington Award for Musical Excellence. This is a floating award given to any competitor that the committee think deserve recognition and was awarded for commitment to the concerts over the years, for outstanding effort, the passion that Tom puts into his performance and for generally capturing the spirit of the festival.

Success also came to the Bellan House ensembles. Bellan Blowers (recorder ensemble) scooped 1st place and a merit along with the Henry Pelham Memorial Cup, Bellan Gigglers

(string trio) placed 2nd in the brass, woodwind and string ensemble class while Bellan Players (brass ensemble) came 3rd in the same class.

In the Youth Choir competition First went to the Bellan House Year 5/6 choir and Second to the Year 3/4 choir while brothers Freddie and Bertie Heasmer-Jones placed First in the piano duet.

Photo: Winners from the 2018 Oswestry Youth Music Festival