Worcester Competitive Arts Festival 2022
RGS Worcester was very pleased to host the annual Worcester Competitive Arts Festival once again this year. The Festival celebrates performance in its many forms: poetry, drama, choral, singing, speech, music, aiming to give amateur musicians and actors in Worcestershire and beyond, an opportunity to demonstrate skills in a friendly and supportive environment.
Several talented RGS Worcester pupils entered this year’s competition and achieved excellent results in a number of categories. Congratulations also to RGS pupils Arthur Hasling (violin) who won the Intermediate String Solo Class with Distinction, Ben Brierly, who achieved a Distinction in the Advanced Piano Solo Class and Abigail Walter, who won the Beginner Solo Woodwind Class.
The RGS Intermediate String Ensemble competed in the Large Ensemble Class and achieved a Distinction. Orla Hession-Wilson writes:
“We played two contrasting pieces: Pink Lady, by Pamela Wedgwood, and Hit The Road Jack, by P Mayfield, and they were both a great success. We started with Pink Lady, a more legato and gentle piece. The violins played the more relaxed tune and the ‘cellos played the bouncy, pizzicato bassline. The challenges of this piece are trying to keep the different parts all in time with one another, and making sure the volume of the different parts were balanced. I believe we pulled this off well in the performance. We also made very dramatic dynamic changes when going from forte to piano.
Our second piece, Hit The Road Jack is a more upbeat piece, with a lively melody shared between the violins and cellos at points. The challenges with this piece are following the repeats and making sure we played all the sharps and naturals. We all really enjoy this piece of music because of its upbeat feel and it is fun to play.
After playing both of our pieces, we received useful feedback from the adjudicator; what we did well and what could still improve.
Overall, we really enjoyed this performance and it was an excellent learning experience. We received a Distinction and were presented with a trophy by the Mayor and we look forward to future experiences like this.”
Very well done to all of the pupils who entered and thank you to the Worcester Competitive Arts team and the team from RGS for providing this opportunity.
