Wensleydale Young Musician of the Year 2024

St Matthew's Church, Leyburn recently featured a very successful second running of the Wensleydale Young Musician competition. With eighteen entries featuring young musicians aged from seven to seventeen. The church was filled with music ranging from Beethoven to Guns N' Roses. The event is organised by BlueBoxt together with Wensleydale Rotary. The adjudicator was Mrs Diana Hartley.

The entries were split into three classes. Each class was split into Junior and Senior sections. 

Class one was for an Instrumentalist or Vocalist playing acoustically, accompanied by a pianist or unaccompanied. The junior winner was Alex Douthwaite who played Ecossaise in G by Beethoven on the piano while the senior winner was Tom Staley who played Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in Eb Major on his trumpet.

Class two was for an instrumentalist or vocalist playing with amplification accompanied by a backing track or unaccompanied. The junior winner was Sienna Alderson who played "I want to Break Free" on the drums written by John Deacon the former bass player of the rock band Queen. The senior winner was Jonty Ledbetter played Brazileira by Darius Milhaud on his Saxaphone. Brazileira is part of Milhaud's Scaramouche suite.

Class three was for an ensemble or group, consisting of two or more performers playing acoustically or amplified. There were joint winners of this class, Ellen and Edie Carr on piano and violin playing Serenade by Anton Arensky, and J-Force (Jonty & Jeremy Ledbetter) playing their own composition "On Through the Night" 

The overall winner of the Wensleydale Young Musician competition was shared between Jonty Ledbetter aged 15 years for his saxophone playing and Tom Staley aged 12 years for his trumpet playing. As the eldest Jonty Ledbetter will go forward to the Rotary District final which will be held at St John's Church, Sharrow on Sunday 9th February. The winner of that competition will go forward to the Rotary National Finals later in the year.

Presentations of the winners’ certificates and medals was made by Wensleydale Rotary Club President Mr Richard Pennell who said, “This is the second year we have run the event and we were pleased to see an increase in the numbers taking part. The event provides invaluable performance experience for the young musicians. The support of BlueBoxt in organising the competition is invaluable”