The 2023 Cyril Dashwood Piano Competition took place on Friday 3rd February. The standard was very good with an extremely diverse range of composers and style, ranging from Beethoven and Liszt to Blues and La La Land! There were some stunning performances and a strong cohort of new Fourth Form players, as well as a large contingent of players who had just finished the GCSE rehearsal exams. Congratulations to them and to all who took part.
Very polished performances were given by Digby R. who played Sarah by Peter-Horas, Monty N. who performed his Dave Grusin blues piece effortlessly and with great affinity for the style and Ava S. who played her Mike Cornick Film Noir with great aplomb.
The winners were Richard E. for the Juniors, who played the Beethoven Pathetique first movement, and Lily H. for the Seniors, who played the Chopin E minor Nocturne. Richard’s performance was full of drama and excitement, contrasting the dark and light characters perfectly and Lily’s was beautiful from the outset with lots of colour and poetry in the playing. The evening was a great success and proved extremely enjoyable.
