Festival News
Saturday
Today (Saturday) sees the final day of competitions at the Manx Music Festival for 2009. The morning classes are for Folk Song (9 and under 14 years) with 46 entrants, and Character Study (under 12) for which 22 young people have entered.
The afternoon session sees four classes, all held in the Royal Hall. They are for Ladies' Choirs, Mixed Chorals, Male Voice Choirs and finally the Open Concert Class.
Finals Night starts at 7 p.m. in the Royal Hall with the competition for the Sheffield Plate, generally recognised as the junior equivalent of the Cleveland Medal Test.
Further Finals for the F M Cubbon Rose Bowl (Lieder) and the Billown Rose Bowl (Vocal Duets) follow before the climax of the week is reached when the winners of the six Special Solo Classes compete for the coveted Cleveland, Ohio (U.S.A.) Manx Society's Gold Medal.
The finals this year will be adjudicated by Jeffrey Wynn Davies.
posted on: 02/05/2009
Fridays Highlights
The penultimate day's competitions at the Guild saw Rachel Hopkinson take the final place in Saturday's Sheffield Plate Final for the winners of our junior singers' competitions, when she won the Girls Solo (12 and under 14) class. She will be joined by Anna Harding (Girls' Solo 11years), Jodie Wickers (Girls' Solo 9 years), Adele Harris (Girls' Solo 10 years) who all won their classes on Tuesday, and Bethany Magee, winner of the Girls' Solo (14 and under 16) Class on Thursday.
The winner of the Popular Standard Song Class for Songs written between 1930 and 1979 was Becki Somers with her rendition of Marvin Hamlisch's 'The Way We Were'.posted on: 01/05/2009
Thursday Highlights
A packed audience saw Olivia Black chosen as the winner of Thursday evening's class for Songs from the Musicals in the Royal Hall. American born adjudicator Stuart Smith had high praise for her performance of 'Art is Calling For Me' (I want to be a Prima Donna), from Victor Herbert's 1911 Broadway Comic Opera 'The Enchantress', and awarded her 89 marks, just one ahead of Barbara Gale who sang 'Send in the Clowns' from Stephen Sondheim's musical 'A Little Night Music.
For those who are unable to visit the Guild in person, don't forget that Judith Ley presents a nightly round up of results and highlights, including selected performances, at 9 pm on Manx Radio (89 and 97.2m VHF, AM1368, and worldwide at manxradio.com) during the Festival.The programmes will remain available for download for a short period on the 'listen again' section of their website.
posted on: 30/04/2009