Woodley Festival Success!

The Woodley Festival of Music and Arts is celebrated locally as a fantastic annual event dedicated to fostering and showcasing the talents and hard work of young people in the expressive arts. The encouraging but competitive atmosphere provides a space where participants can perform before a professional adjudicator and an appreciative audience. Its primary focus is on providing valuable performance experience, constructive feedback, and a sense of achievement for all entrants, while maintaining a competitive edge.

This year the Choral and Instrumental sections were hosted over the weekend of 7^th and 8^th March, with three of our students achieving impressive results. In the Strings Grade 8 class Eva earned a stunning 96 points out of 100 and turning a tune on the bassoon, Reuben won Silver for both the Recital and the Concerto classes. Eva’s accomplished performance also earned her Oakwood Instrumental Trophy for the Best Performance in the Graded Classes. Taylor competed with his saxophone winning Gold in the Instrumental Composition, 1st in the Woodwind Solo under 16 class and achieving Bronze in the Concerto class. His excellent performances were recognised with ‘Exceptional’ – a standard of 95 or more out of 100! We are immensely proud of each of our contestants’ dedication and skill and are pleased that others in the local community have had the opportunity to hear them play.

Reuben, who played the Vogul Bassoon Concerto and the Wilson Osborne Rhapsody and the Ken Cooper Jazz Suite, commented: “I love performing to anyone really but at Woodley there is a really good atmosphere and good sound for both myself and the audience. It was a good experience. I was playing mostly against people in the year above me and a few in the year below but the standard was pretty similar across us all; listening to myself I thought I had a chance to get on the podium. I would definitely do it again, probably with some more difficult pieces, to get absolutely perfect!”

Good luck to Eva next weekend when she will be playing in some of the pianoforte classes, to Reuben with his imminent Diploma qualification exams and to Taylor taking part in the ISA Young Musician Competition on Wednesday!