Enter our 2022 Gloucestershire Young Musician of the Year now if you want to dazzle like Darcy Beck at her debut marimba concerto concert in Cheltenham Town Hall.
The 2020 winner was launching the new season’s contest at her delayed prize-winner’s concert where she performed French composer Emmanuel Séjourné’s work with Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra, under Glyn Oxley’s baton.
Here is Darcy’s performance:
Darcy’s prowess as a percussionist singled her out as the first marimba player to win the Gloucestershire title and it looks as if she has already inspired another young hopeful to enter our 2022 competition.
The Cardiff University scholar, who hails from Prestbury, performed before an audience of about 200, including students from Stroud High, Marling and Sir Thomas Rich’s Schools, as well as Churchdown Academy and Dean Close.
To enter Gloucestershire Young Musician of the Year 2022 which is open to piano, string, woodwind, orchestral percussion, and brass musicians, students must be under the age of 22 years on or before 1 March 2022, of at least Grade 8 standard, who live in or go to school in the county or receive musical tuition in a recognised musical organisation in Gloucestershire. Entries are now open and close at midnight on Sunday 5 December 2021.
The winner will receive the Hewitt-Jones Trophy, a cheque for £500 and the opportunity to play a recital at Cheltenham Music Festival and perform with Gloucestershire Symphony and Gloucestershire Youth Orchestras.
There is also an audience prize of £200 with the opportunity to play at the Carducci Festival, sponsored by the Carducci Trust. Runners-up receive cheques for £50.
Auditions take place on 9 January 2022 at Gloucestershire Academy of Music’s Gloucester headquarters at Barbican House and the Finalists’ Concert is being staged at Pittville Pump Room on Tuesday 8 March 2022.
The sponsors who have made this contest possible include Gloucestershire Academy of Music, The Brimpsfield Music Society, The Summerfield Charitable Trust, Make Music Gloucestershire, the Carducci Trust and Ann Heron, mother of 2016 winner Adam.
Darcy Beck, Gloucestershire Young Musician of the Year winner in 2020 played her winning concert at Cheltenham Town Hall on the marimba.
Pictures by Mikal Ludlow Photography
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