Term three was a busy one for the new Commonweal Music Department with the Introduction of the Commonweal Music Competition. Initiated by new music teacher Helen Clements, with the support of the head of music – Alison Sutcliffe there were three categories to allow vocalists, instrumentalists
and bands to enter. The competition attracted over 100 applications!

The auditions uncovered all sorts of hidden talents – particularly in year 7 with a number of extremely talented pianists making it through to the semi-finals. The singing competition had the highest number of entrants who were put through their paces in front of an ‘X-Factor’ style panel of judges made up of music teachers at the School. Many renditions of numbers from the popular new musical ‘High School Musical’ were heard alongside Shirley Bassey and Eva Cassidy.

The battle of the Bands has given a lot of the bands something to work towards and is proving to be a huge success. The prize up for grabs was a day in a local recording studio ‘Dumb Yank Productions’. The winners from each category will have the chance to record their piece and be given a fully produced CD to take away with them.

The preliminary rounds happened during the two weeks leading up to the grand final which was on Thursday 15 th February at 7pm in the School Hall.

Along with the top three performances in each category there was also a performance from our guest celebrity judges- percussionists Owen Gunnell and Henry Baldwin. The two guests delivered a workshop with Commonweal students on the afternoon of the 15 th to further their percussion development and awareness.

Review by our school patron Shirley Ludford who is also a broadcaster and media trainer

Teenage screams. Wild hand clapping. Loud cheering. Finally, rocking in the aisles. That was the audience for the annual Commonweal school music competition, as previewed in last week’s Adver.

Over 100 students auditioned for the competition finals, which saw 4 singers, 4 individual musicians and finally 4 bands who took the room by storm, competing for the titles in the three sections.

Best Vocalist Corine Conway, who sang “Mercy On Me, was said to “have excellent presence and held the audience”.

Best Instrumentalist was Tom Thorpe who had superb control of the cornet, playing a long and musically complicated piece.

Title of Best Band was taken by “The Alfonz”. Comprising Sam Lee, Charlie Rowe and Adam Wiltshire, they gave an accomplished and polished performance, playing an own composition. I’m not sure who had the wildest time – audience or entrants. The judges’ faces were a picture as the audience was whipped into a right frenzy!

The icing on the cake was a performance by two very relevant guest judges, professional musicians Owen Gunnell and Henry Baldwin, who hold numerous music credits between them, have played on national radio and television, performed with artists including Kylie Minogue and Lionel Ritchie, tour nationally and internationally, and are keen to share their knowledge and experience through school workshops, inspiring upcoming musicians. They played an energetic percussion number from their new CD “JADI” on marimba and 2 sets of drums and were, I’m sure, a real inspiration to budding young musicians present on the night.

A polished version of “Wonder Wall” from special needs students who really showed they had what it took, gave a knockout finale to the evening. Congratulations to all involved – a real credit to the town!