The 2023 City of Plymouth Music Vocal Festival
We are very excited to announce that the 2023 Instrumental section of our Music festival has been scheduled to run on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th November.
As usual it will be held at Sherwell Church, PL4 8ER. Directions to the venue are available on this page.
You can download the syllabus from the “Important Documents” section at the top of this page.
The adjudicator for the Instrumental Section of our 2023 City of Plymouth Music Festival is:
Christopher Field
Christopher has enjoyed a widely varied musical career. As a schoolboy he sang at the coronation service of HM Queen in Westminster Abbey and played double bass in the London Schools Symphony Orchestra. While a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, he conducted the College Madrigal Group and played in the University Orchestra. He continued his studies as a scholar at the Royal Academy of Music and in Switzerland with Frederick Husler on an Arts Council of Great Britain postgraduate award.
His subsequent career as a schoolmaster at Dulwich College was combined with extensive work as a concert baritone, choral conductor, composer and teacher of singing and double bass. For over forty years, various of his teaching works have appeared in the singing and double bass graded examination syllabuses of ABRSM, LCM, TCM and GSMD; he has been published by Banks, Boosey and Hawkes, Recital Music, Weinberger and Yorke Edition. A Garland of Song, a collection of ten songs for the developing voice, was published by Recital Music in 2016.
An experienced adjudicator member of the British and International Federation of Festivals, and for many years an ABRSM diploma examiner, he conducts the City of London Chamber Choir and continues to teach singing and double bass. He has joined forces with the Plaegan Piano Quartet in performances of Schubert’s Trout Quintet.
Christopher is prepared to adjudicate on-line festivals.
The Safe Return of all Festival Cups and Trophies
Auditing and preparing returned cups ready for presentation is a mammoth task and requires a lot of time, effort and space.
The cups and trophies needing to be returned by October 1st are those which had been presented in the previous years, that’s the 2022 Music, Speech and Drama festivals.
So, to support and make this task as easy as possible for our Cup Secretary Carolyne, we ask that the Music, Speech and drama cups and trophies awarded in 2022, are returned to her by the 1st of October 2023 at the latest.
Cups and trophies should be engraved with the name of the performer who had won the class and had been presented with the award. Similarly, the names of all performers in duet, trio and quad classes should be engraved on the award.
The cup or trophy should then be returned to Carolyne.
Cups and trophies can be delivered in person to Carolyne’s home address and left in the labelled box in her back garden. Or, they can be boxed, carefully wrapped and posted to the address below:
- 18 Woolcombe Lane
- Ivybridge
- Plymouth PL21 0UA
- 01752 895254 or 07881 303204
- [email protected] or [email protected]
If you have any queries regarding the return of your cup or trophy, please contact Carolyne. You can also contact her to make a personal arrangement. She is always very helpful.
Supervision of Performers
Please remember that for the duration of a festival all teachers, parents, guardians and carers are responsible for the continuous care and supervision of their own children or pupils. If they are unable to attend personally, they must delegate their responsibilities to an identified adult and ensure that their children or pupils are aware of the identity and name of the person responsible for their care. This includes supervision throughout all Festival venues, performance and practice and changing areas that are be provided.
For your information, please read Plymouth festival’s Safer Festivals Statement which can be downloaded from the Important Documents section at the top of this page.
The Festival Performance
The Festival experience differs from the examination situation in that it offers participants the opportunity to perform on a public stage in front of an audience and receive a mark and feedback from a qualified adjudicator.
The adjudicator will therefore look for a complete performance, including attention to dress, entrances and exits, announcing and acknowledging both applause and, where appropriate, the accompanist.
Please remember to use our website and Facebook and Twitter pages to receive notifications regarding all three of our festivals.