This year’s Final of the Bolton School Boys’ Division’s Young Musician Competition, in its eighteenth year, delivered a showcase of exceptional talent. Fourteen outstanding solo performers, who were already winners in their individual categories, wowed the Great Hall audience with an amazing level of musicianship. They created a tough job for North West based musician, composer and teacher, Andrew Wilson, who was the adjudicator on the night. In his summation, he said: ‘This has been a wonderful evening of music-making. I have been so impressed and there has been a splendid level of achievement. Frankly, I have had the time of my life; it has been such an enjoyable couple of days. The contestants should be incredibly proud of their teachers and parents. Everyone has a right to be here tonight. I say to the boys, thank you for making my job so incredibly difficult!'
After giving detailed feedback to each contestant, Mr Wilson declared The Senior Young Musician of the Year as being Harry Adams on violin and the Junior Young Musician as Jamie Chen on guitar. The Junior Young Composer of the Year Award was given to Advaith Govindu and the Senior Young Composer of the Year to Harry Adams, who picked up his second prize of the night. The Most Promising Performer Award went to pianist Xuan Wang.
The Awards actually began back in January with hundreds of boys entering; 74 musicians were then selected as semi-finalists and took part in competition over the course of a whole day before the winner of each category was invited to take part in the Final. Mr Forgrieve, Head of Instrumental Studies, congratulated the pupils on their performances and reminded the audience that what they were seeing was the culmination of years of dedication and hard work. He also thanked Mr and Mrs Hilton, who were in the audience, for their ongoing contribution towards the prize money as the ‘Walker-Hilton Music Prizes’.
The Junior Finalists (in performance order) were:
- Dhilan Jacobs (Year 8) who was at Patterdale Hall and whose piece was played on a video screen
- Jamie Chen (Year 7) playing guitar
- Nathan Pierson (Year 9) who sang
- Antoine Jodeau (Year 8) playing trumpet
- Charlie Simpson (Year 7) playing drums
- Martin Ma (Year 8) playing cucurbit flute
- Stephen Nagai (Year 7) playing violin
The Senior Finalists (in performance order) were:
- William Miles (Year 13) playing piano
- Laurence Britton (Year 12) playing drums
- Harry Adams (Year 11) playing violin
- Kevin Longthorne (Year 11) playing French horn
- George Houghton (Year 11) playing clarinet
- Anuj Mishra (Year 13) who sang
- Askshat Kamath (Year 11) who played guitar.
