Leith Hill Music Festival 2025

Another Leith Hill Music Festival has drawn to a close and it's fair to say that although the day is naturally filled with nerves we all enjoyed the experience and came out the end feeling positive.

We drew the first place in the singing order for the competition, which meant we could do our piece and then relax and enjoy the rest of the performances. All the performances were so varied it made for a very enjoyable and the morning flew past.

In spite of finishing last in every class, we can hold our heads up as we got some very acceptable marks and there were many favourable comments of the marksheets, which will be coming to you via the next Capeletta. We also got some lovely comments from Neil Ferris who recognised the struggles of a small choir and spoke enthusiastically to Anna about how well we did!!

A big thank you is due to Anna and Anthea for all their hard work this term.

For posterity here are the videos of our performances:

I know a bank were the wild time blows by Sarah Quartel

Ubi Caritas by Ola Gjeilo

The Dance by Elgar

And for the dedicated amongst you here are is a transcribed version of our adjudication sheets:

Living Composer:            I know a bank                       Sarah Quartel

Lovely legato lines and mostly very good diction. Just take care of tuning to avoid occasional flatness.

Allow yourselves to smile more so that the audience knows what this piece is about. You could make even more of the dynamic contrasts – b57 was great for this! Thank you.                                                                                           80

Unaccompanied piece:            Ubi Caritas               Ol Gjeilo

This piece suits you very well and I could tell that you were enjoying singing it.

Plenty of contrast of mood and dynamics. The tuning was better too, but take care from b28 when you go into the new key.

I would like to have even more softness in the last couple of pages.

Lovely close onto ‘n’ at the end.                                                                         84

Accompanied piece:             The Dance                             Sir Edward Elgar

I enjoyed the lightness of the upper voices. This performance had a positive energy but, again, needed more smiles!

When the words are happy you need to be too. Some of you were but not all.

Some impressive high notes from the sopranos. The tuning before figure F slightly let you down.

A lovely performance – thank you.                                                                     84