Young Musician 2023

This annual event is a collaboration with our partners Churchill Music, and sees our finest young musicians presenting a short programme of contrasting "moods" to a set time limit of 8 minutes for the senior contestants, and 6 minutes for the junior. 

Our professional adjudication panel was chaired by Simon Smith, FRSA, coordinator of string studies at Wells Cathedral School. He was joined by Adrian Trapp, Director of Music at Weston Parish Church, and Holly Greenwood-Rogers, a professional French Horn player and previous winner of the competition. 

The audience in the packed church were delighted by a range of music on cornet, violin, guitar, voice and tuba, with compositions ranging from the seventeenth century to the contemporary. Lucas Granger performed his own composition, Deep Sleep, on the guitar. 

The wealth of talent and musicality on display was wonderful to see - and hear. It was almost impossible to choose between them - but in the end, the adjudicators awarded the prizes as follows: 

• Raymond Hayter Song Prize: Gemma Partridge (Year 12)
• Ursula Dornton Vocal Prize: Matt Lucas (Year 12)
• Churchill Music Junior Trophy: Adam Corke (Year 11) - tuba
• Churchill Music Audience Trophy: Toby Wilson (Year 11) - violin
• Churchill Young Musician of the Year: Tom Donovan (Year 13) - guitar

The runners-up also received awards from Churchill Music: 

• Ailis Phillips (Year 12) - cornet
• Wilfred Maitland-Round (Year 10) - cornet
• Lucas Granger (Year 10) - guitar
• Izzy Russe (Year 9) - voice
• Felicity Dickson-Boardman (Year 11) - voice

Congratulations to all involved.