News

As part of their prize from the Brighton Phil, last year’s Springboard Festival winners Berniya Hamie and Natasha O’Flynn chose to attend the Brighton Phil’s rehearsal at Brighton Dome on Sunday 11 February 2018 and met guest conductor Howard Shelley.

Natasha was accompanied to the rehearsal by her piano teacher, and grandmother, Nicola Grunberg, and a fascinating family connection to Howard Shelley was revealed. Nicola studied piano with Lamar Crowson at the Royal College of Music alongside Hilary Macnamara, Howard Shelley’s future wife.

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Springboard was treated to a series of wonderful performances by some highly accomplished young string players this weekend. Two cellists, Dilara Sahin (pictured) and Milan Beckett, won the Corin Long recital classes (senior and junior), and adjudicator Mark Messenger picked cellist Riya Hamie to receive the Cecil Aronowitz cup for the most promising string player.

But they were just three among many players whose musicianship and skill (developed through hours of dedicated practice) those of us in the audience felt privileged to have the chance to experience.

 

 

Following her wonderful performances  in the Piano and Concerto sections at Springboard last year Hazel Nguyen is set to represent Springboard in two forthcoming events.

She will be playing Hummel’s Piano Concerto with the Brighton Youth Orchestra as part of the Brighton Festival  and will compete in the Emanuel Trophy Competition at the North London Festival of Music and Dance on 21 April.

 

Saturday at Springboard saw teenage pianists (and some rather older participants) playing in a range of musical styles, from Bach to boogie-woogie, and giving much pleasure to all who attended. The day was rounded off by the Senior Championship Final, which was won by Freya Clarke.

 

 

 

Eleanor Voak, Springboard Most Promising Woodwind Player, treated us to an inspired performance of recorder music, including haunting birdsong, which the adjudicator, Rosanna Whitfield, said transported her to a rainforest!

We were delighted to hear of the success of both of the representatives selected by Springboard to take part in the Rotary Young Musician District heat yesterday.

Berniya Hamie won the instrumentalists section and Milan Beckett was runner up.

They have both qualified for the Regional final in Reading in April.

We were saddened to hear of the death of cellist and teacher, Caroline Brown.  Caroline managed the Old Market Arts Centre in Hove for many years where Springboard Festival was based.  She also ran the Hanover Band.

We are delighted that two winners selected from last year’s Springboard Festival are to take part in the Regional Championship of the Rotary Young Musicians Competition on 25 February.  Berniya Hamie will be playing piano and Milan Beckett, cello.

Good luck to both of them!

 

Don’t forget tomorrow (14 January) is the closing date for entries!

Springboard has been following the progress of Leah who has entered the Festival for the last three years.  She plays flute, piccolo, bassoon and piano and has been a Springboard winner in the Woodwind & Brass section.

Leah’s mother wrote to us recently that “Springboard was always the special one for us because it was there, when Leah had not been playing flute long, that an adjudicator asked if Leah has considered taking an audition at a junior conservatoire. She was not technically brilliant then but the adjudicator must have seen something in her. Encouraged by this, Leah was motivated to start thinking about music much more seriously.

We are not from a family with a musical background so we were just happy she was playing music but we didn’t know how good she was or how to direct her in the right direction. We are pleased that someone picked up her talents back then.

Here we are, a few years on, Leah is studying at Junior Royal Academy of Music in London and seriously thinking about music as her future career. She is already performing in many care homes, hospices as a volunteer and church concerts to raise funds for Africa and is auditioning for senior conservatoires next autumn.”