Leamington Sinfonia, Young Soloists’ Competition, Holy Trinity Church, Saturday 25 January, 2025

Joe Davies, the protagonist of this splendid event, conducted the ever-enthusiastic Leamington Sinfonia in support of three outstanding young musicians from Kenilworth, Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa.   Adjudicators, Richard Laing, Louise Braithwaite and Orchestra Patron, Howard Skempton are a demanding panel. First to perform was 16 year old, Leamington College student, Ozwold Castle, playing the first two movements from Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, a work the composer used as a vehicle for his own talents. Ozwold’s four year association with the piano – he began playing to impress a girlfriend!! - delivered one of the most astonishing “discoveries” this observer has experienced in twenty years. Howard Skempton accurately reflected on the “Ozwold poise, the great integrity and the exuberance”. His view that Ozwold was “at one with the piano” deserves exploration. This young talent does not read music! Thanks to Michael Barker, his coach, we learn an immersion in the piece as performed by professionals informs his own interpretation of how he wants the piece to sound. Next he paints his version at the piano with colours and shapes before transposing this to the keyboard. An awe-inspiring model! His long term wish is to become a successful composer,

watch this space!

Fresh from his second year exploits with the National Youth Orchestra (NYO), Stratford’s 14 year old Joshua Tan played one of the three great violin concertos, the Max Bruch Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor.  This young man simply cannot stop smiling as he dictated the pace,  displayed admirable concentration and delivered the most touchingly beautiful melody of the Adagio.  Richard Laing was impressed with his technical ability and was pleased Joshua presented “his own version of the work”, claiming he “hadn’t enjoyed a performance so much” for a long time.

Kenilworth’s Andrew O’Reilly, now a first year student at the Royal College, has achieved great things in his career.  Leader of the cello desks during his years with NYO, soloist at local musical events and contributor to local orchestras, Andrew performed the second and third movements from Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor. When conducting this work with the Berlin Philharmonic, the great Karajan identified a potential for imbalance with orchestras. Sadly, this was not addressed by Joe Davies.  As a result,  Andrew’s efforts were overwhelmed by an over-enthusiastic orchestra to the detriment of the performance; he deserved better. Louise Braithwaite praised Andrew for his “elegant playing and his engagement with Sinfonia’s leader”.

Joshua Tan was announced as the winner; we will hear much more of him.