Crowds gathered at the Cochran Hall, Kirkcudbright Academy on the evening of Thursday 8 February for the Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright Young Musician 2018 competition.
There were two competitions on the night, one for thirteen S1 to S3 musicians and one for fourteen S4 to S6 musicians
The very difficult role of judging the competitions fell to Maureen Smith, Education Officer and keen musician, to Patrick Dupuy, an ex-Acedemy student currently following a career in music, and to Chair of Judges, Jaimie Brand, music teacher at Annan Academ
For two hours the audience of family and friends, teachers, and Rotarians was thoroughly entertained by inspiring performances from the young people. The competitors sang, or played a range of instruments including piano, fiddle, cello, bagpipes, saxaphone, tenor horn, clarinet and guitar. The varied musical styles included traditional folk, jazz, showtime and classical pieces.
A cliché it may be but it is nonetheless true that on this occasion all of the competitors were ‘winners’ in their own right in that they all performed with great skill and confidence and certainly thoroughly entertained their audience.
The winner in the S1 – S3 category was Max Wright, who sang “Other Side of the World”. In the S4 – S6 category the winning vocalist was Luke Thomson who sang “Stars”, whilst the winning instrumentalist was Robert Hannah who played “Cavatina” on the acoustic guitar. Luke and Robert will now go through to the next round, the Rotary South Wset Area heat, which will be held at Annan Academy on Thursday 15th February.
Finally, mention must be made of Miss Hannah Gill, the music teacher at Kirkcudbright Academy. To have inspired twenty seven students to perform and entertain as they did reflects her energy, commitment, leadership and her passion for teaching young people.
The next Rotary and schools music event in the Cochran Hall will see the Primary cluster and the Academy present an evening of music in aid of the Rotary ‘End Polio Now’ project. This project, in conjunction with the United Nations and the World Health Organisation, seeks to eliminate polio from the world’s population. Polio has existed In every country in the world but now, through this vaccination programme, it is now present in only a very few cases in only three countries, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. We are nearly there!
