MATRAVERS School celebrated its students’ musical talents on Thursday 17th October as this year’s Young Musician of the Year was crowned.
The overall ‘Young Musician of the Year’ was awarded to Sam Veall for his rendition of Ed Sheeran’s ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ vocals and acoustic guitar.
The runners-up in the 11-14 years category were Phoebe Upton for her performance of ‘Maybe’ from the musical Annie and Amy Wheeler for her electric guitar solo playing ACDC’s ‘You Shook Me All Night Long.’
The runners-up in the 14-17 years category were girlband ‘Bittersweet’ performing ‘Six’ from the musical Six; who were also awarded the Matravers Audience Award voted for by members of the audience, and sixth-form student Lucy Pennell for her piano solo of Snow Patrol’s ‘Chasing Cars’.
The Westbury Leos awarded their annual ‘endeavour award’, awarded to performers with future promise, to year 7 pupil Reuben Blunt who performed a drum solo to ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’.
The annual competition is sponsored by Westbury Lions, who also award the winners with bursaries to take singing/ musical instrument lessons. Students Oscar Morris and Owen Smith hosted the event which saw a whole host of musical performances from students ranging from year 7 to sixth form.
The competition was judged by Angie and Rob Fawcett; a husband and wife duo ‘Us Two’ who have performed together for 20 years; Miss Willison, the school’s new art & design teacher and Martin Stewart, of the Wiltshire Music Hub.
The evening was split into two categories, with students aged 11-14 performing first, followed by those aged 14-17.
After an interval, the audience was treated to a performance from ‘Us Two’ and a solo performance from student Maisie Long.
The awards were then presented by Westbury Lions president Michelle Strout. She said, “A big thank you to all the staff and students at Matravers for putting on a great show, these things don’t happen by magic! A special mention to Oscar and Owen for hosting the evening, they were both great.
“Also, a thank you to the amazing judges for their hard work and for agreeing to judge the competition and of course a big well done to all the students who competed. It really was a great evening.”
Performers during the evening were: Issy Goble-Sellers and Charlotte Morrison, Amy Wheeler, Phoebe Upton, Reuben Blunt, Rebekah Slarke and Charlotte Cruse, Modulo, Harmonize, Fortibus, Toby Robinson, Lucy Pennell, Sam Veall, Annie Bell, Lauren Strand and Bittersweet.
