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Kilgraston Young Musician Of The Year 2023

Kilgraston Young Musician Of The Year showcases the tremendous musical talent we have in school and last week saw the culmination of the 2023 competition with parents, families and staff attending the event.

More than 50 pupils submitted performances for the heats stage of the competition in various different categories with the shortlist going through to play in the final concerts for both Junior School and Senior School.

After opening performances by last year’s winners, Caitlin and Emma, the serious business of the competition began with all finalists performing brilliantly, making for some very difficult decisions. We were very lucky to welcome Mr Matthew Beetschen as our guest adjudicator for the evening who had the unenviable job of deciding the winners from the superb talent on display and we are very grateful for his expertise and wise words to the performers.

Congratulations to all our finalists and to the overall winners in Junior School, Sophie, and Senior School winner, Lower Sixth’s Anne.

Perform in Perth 2023 results

Perform in Perth, the annual festival of music, speech and dance, has taken place at venues around Perthshire. Each year around 2,800 performers take part in the two week festival which runs in March with Kilgraston having a strong presence in a number of classes.

The Junior Years’ pupils worked hard, with some rehearsing with their teachers since Christmas and the effort and dedication have paid off with armfuls of merits, trophies and medals being won. In the first week, our Junior Years participants were excited to take part in the speech classes. Pupils took part in poetry and Bible reading classes last week. They spoke eloquently and added expression, tone and facial expressions when reciting poems. We celebrated great success. Frieda came first with her extremely expressive rendition of ‘Grudges’ by Judith Nicoll, with Ceola in second and Beatrix and Lucy in joint third.

William also came first in his poetry class, followed closely by Stella in second place and Tallulah and Gigi in joint third. In Bible reading, we celebrated further success with Lochie in second place and Minnie in third in the 9-10 year old category.

The younger pupils also read beautifully with Sabria first and Ceola and Luciana joint second. In our final class of the day, Heidi came first with her fantastic performance of ‘Watch Your French’ by Kit Wright with Charlie coming in a close second.

Then it was the turn of the Junior Years choirs. The Junior School Choir, who performed ‘A Whole New World’ and ‘The Bare Necessities’, were First Class winners and won the Perthshire Church Choir Union Shield. The Early Years Choir received a Merit Award for their beautiful versions of ‘Spring Song’ and ‘Flat As A Pancake’.

Across both Senior and Junior Schools a number of individual pupils along with the Ceilidh Band enjoyed success in classes ranging from Gaelic and Scots songs, musical theatre and opera to instruments including violin, viola and recorder.

Upper Four’s Erin won two classes (unaccompanied folk song and accompanied lullaby) and came second in the Disney songbook class. She was also awarded a silver medal for the folk song class. A special mention also to Lower Third’s Florence and Georgiana who won their duo recorder class at Perform in Perth on Monday, and have been practising with Mrs Stewart since the beginning of the year.

A huge well done to everyone who took part. Here are all our results below.

Kilgraston’s Young Musician of the Year 2022

Kilgraston’s Young Musician of the Year has burst back into our calendar this year with an enraptured audience soaking up the many talents of the finalists.

From the tinkering of film scores like ‘Amelie’ and ‘Les Miserables’ to instrumental pieces such as Street Tango by Astor Piazzolla, there was a wide range of genres and instruments on display. Over 60 talented musicians from up and down the school had entered into the initial competition before the 20 finalists were selected. Kilgraston welcomed Dollar Academy’s Director of Music, Mrs Karol Fitzpatrick as the independent adjudicator to the event, which took place in March 2022. Mrs Fitzpatrick commended the pupils, thanking them for their performances before giving a detailed adjudication, full of positive comments and feedback for the performers.

The overall winners were Upper Third’s Caitlin, Junior School Young Musician of the Year, and Lower Sixth’s Manon, who won Young Musician of the Year, Senior School.

Mr Andrew Morley, Kilgraston’s Director of Music, said: “Kilgraston has a strong musical tradition with a superb quality of musicianship across a wide range of instruments and genres. It is something we are incredibly proud of and this year’s Young Musician Of The Year showcases the incredible talents of our pupils. Well done to everyone who took part and thank you to our adjudicator Mrs Fitzpatrick who had some difficult decisions to make so well done to Manon and Caitlin, this year’s Young Musicians of the Year in our Senior and Junior School categories and to all our category winners and runners up.”

You can watch the competition below.

Beginner Class

Runner Up - Elsie – Piano (Lower Third)

Winner - Eliza – Flute (Lower Second)

Junior Singing Class

Runner Up - Sophie (Lower Third)

Winner- Caitlin (Upper Third)

Junior Piano Class

Winner - Darcy (Lower Third)

Junior Instrumental Class

Winner - Sofia – Violin (Lower Second)

Overall Junior Winner – Caitlin (Upper Third)

Intermediate Piano Class

Runner Up - Olivia (Lower Four)

Winner - Liliya (Lower Sixth)

Intermediate Instrumental Class

Runner Up - Francesca - Flute (Lower Fifth)

Winner - Jenny - Violin (Upper Four)

Intermediate Singing Class

Runner Up - Erin (Upper Fifth)

Winner - Chloe (Lower Four)

Advanced Piano Class

Runner Up - Pak Wai (Upper Fifth)

Winner - Emma (Lower Fifth)

Advanced Singing Class

Runner Up - Maia (Lower Fifth)

Runner Up - Laura (Upper Fifth)

Winner - Hannah-Rose (Upper Sixth)

Advanced Instrumental Class

Runner Up - Janna (Upper Fifth) – Violin

Runner Up – Isabel (Upper Sixth) – Cello

Winner - Manon (Lower Sixth) - Violin

Overall Senior Winner and Kilgraston Young Musician 2022 - Manon (Lower Sixth)

Perform in Perth 2021 results

Perthshire’s annual festival of music, speech and dance, Perform in Perth, took place this year virtually with contestants sending in their entries by video.

Kilgraston pupils from all ages put in outstanding performances across a variety of different categories.

Lucy, Upper Sixth
1st in Euphonium/ Baritone Horn Solo (Advanced)

Emily, Lower Fifth
1st in Classical Guitar Solo (Transitional)

Madeleine, Lower Fifth
1st in the Dramatic Solo (aged 15- 17)

Libby, Upper Four
3rd in Pipe Band Solos Practice Chanter

Rebecca, Lower Four
1st in Harp Solo (Elementary)

Chloe, Upper Third
1st Under 12 Scots song winning the Anne Nicol cup
1st under 12 classical song
1st place under 12 dramatic solo

Erin, Upper Third
1st in under 12 – Disney Song category

Lucy, Upper Third
1st in Descant Recorder Solos (Elementary)
1st in Flute Solo (Transitional)
1st in Bible Reading (aged 11 or 12)

Sally, Lower Third
1st in Clarinet Solo (Initial)

Alice, Lower Second
1st in Bible reading (aged 7 or 8)
1st in verse speaking (aged 7 or 8)

Well done to you all and congratulations to everyone who took part.

You can see more examples of the outstanding musical talent at Kilgraston with this year’s Young Musician of the Year competition.