Rotary Young Musician: Chelmsford Heats

The evening of Friday, 7 January 2022, saw the Chelmsford heat of Rotary Young Musician take place at St Cedd’s School. There were 11 competitors: nine instrumentalists and two singers. The Mayor of Chelmsford, Cklr Jude Deakin, was present with her Mayoress. Peter Cross and David Sparrow acted as adjudicators. We are grateful to Peter for stepping in at just two days’ notice after one of the original adjudicators fell ill with laryngitis.

That was not the only substitution that had to be made very quickly. John Tilsley, the Secretary of the Rotary Club of Chelmsford Mildmay acted as host to the Mayor after our own President Peter contracted Covid. Our member who was scheduled to supervise the car park had problems with his car and our good friend Steve Moriaty took over that role. Unfortunately we were unable to find a team to take over the catering when the original team withdrew because of Covid.

Our member Keith Otter acted as Master of Ceremonies. The eleven competitors treated the audience to a very enjoyable evening of music making. The instrumentalists played a wide variety of instruments. The two singers gave us songs in English, French and Spanish. Most of the instrumental pieces were classical but we also had Gershwin’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So” played on the violin.

The violinist, Sophia Azzitsoglou, was the winning instrumentalist. Libby Simmons won the Vocalist Trophy.

Derek Osborne, the President of the Rotary Club of Danbury & Villages, presented certificates to all the performers and the Mayor presented the winners with their trophies. Both winners will now go through to the District Final to be held in February.