Patrick Shelley Music Prize 2010

The last musical event ever to take place in the Old Music School was yesterday afternoon. Welcoming Richard Dickins, a conductor and currently Director of Music at Imperial College London, to adjudicate the Patrick Shelley Competition, the OMS Recital Room hosted five instrumental classes and a number of tremendous performances. The instrumental competition ran smoothly thanks to the outstanding accompanying skills of Jenny Coultas and Benjamin Davey - with James Ottaway accompanying the singers.

The Competition started with the strings and Alistair Hughes’ accurate and greatly musical performance of Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei was adjudged the winner. In the Piano class Richard Dickins commended Oliver Toomey for playing his own arrangement of Fats Waller’s jazz classic Honeysuckle Rose, including improvisation, although it wasn’t enough to beat George Buckingham, who won with his performance of Debussy’s La Cathedrale Engloutie, played from memory and with great composure. George Chattey’s performance of the first two movements of Burton’s Sonatina for Flute brought great compliments from the adjudicator as he won the Woodwind class and claimed the Patrick Shelley Music Cup for the best performance overall. The playing of Hold’s Tango on the Saxophone by Cosimo Malizia also highly commended. The competition continued with the Brass section in which Toby Cairns and Jack Lewis were commended for their performances of Strauss’ Concerto No 1, 1st Movt on the Horn and Sonata for Trombone, 4th Movt by Bourgeois respectively. But Max Radford won this section with his trumpet, performing Hubeau’s Spiritual beautifully. Finally a very strong Singing class got underway and after a number of very accomplished singers Richard Dickins named Benjamin Craw the winner for his performance of Mendelssohn’s O God Have Mercy.

In winning the Patrick Shelley Cup for the second year running George Chattey is continuing the tradition of annual competitive musical excellence in memory of one of Sherborne’s most loved and respected Director of Music, Patrick Shelley. George may be heard again in the Music Festival at the end of this week, while the brand new purpose-built Music School is being opened on Friday.

James Henderson
Director of Music

Posted: Monday, June 28, 2010