Blacklock Music Competition 2017

July 6, 2017

This is the third year of the renamed ‘Blacklock Music Competition’ which is in honour of Dr Celia Blacklock a former HMSG Music Scholar who tragically died from cancer in August 2014.  We were delighted that her parents Lyn and Charles Blacklock were once again able to attend the competition and present the prizes to the first three competitors in both the Vocal and Instrumental Categories. It was also a pleasure to welcome back Celia’s brother Adam, an Old Monmothian and former A level music student at HMSG.

This year’s music competition proved to be very popular with our musical pupils. There were record entries for both the vocal and the instrumental competitions, and the preliminary rounds were keenly contested.  This allowed us to put forward seven competitors in each of the two final categories. Prizes were generously supplied by Friends of HMSG. The adjudicator for this year’s event was Catherine Handley, a celebrated flautist and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, who has recorded and performed with many of the leading orchestras in this country.

The winner of the Vocal competition was Lottie, who performed Adele’s ‘All I ask’ and the two Runner-ups were Ffion and Carys. The winner of the Instrumental competition was Xiaoli, who performed Sonata in C, 1st mov. by Haydn. The two Runner-ups were Ally and Mami.

The depth of talent in Years 7-10 is astounding and their performances were truly inspirational.  Celia Blacklock was herself an inspirational musician and it is wonderful to see these younger competitors carrying on her legacy.  Had she been there she would have been thrilled with the standard of performance and would have greatly admired the fearless approach they adopted towards performing their repertoire. The future of music performance at HMSG looks radiantly bright.