The 2023 City of Plymouth Music Instrumental Festival
We are very excited to announce that the 2023 Instrumental section of our Music festival has been scheduled to run on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th 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:
Jonathan Rea
Qualifications: MA(Cantab),LTCL,PGCE
Jonathan studied music at Cambridge, where he sang in the University Chamber Choir and studied piano with Peter Pettinger. He held choral and instrumental awards and won the Rima Alamuddin prize for piano performance.
After 10 happy years as Director of Music in Bangor Grammar School, he began a broader career in conducting, producing, writing, composing, arranging and piano accompanying. He has conducted many programmes for BBC Songs of Praise and directed the Belfast choir for Children in Need. For several years he was the Principal Examiner for A-Level Music Performance in Northern Ireland. He is the choral director for the annual Sing! conference in Nashville, for whom he has on two occasions directed choirs with 1000 participants. He now provides consultancy to a number of church-based organisations.
Jonathan is Creative Director and Chief Executive of New Irish Arts, whose choir, orchestra and youth choir perform at over 20 events per year. They have sold out Belfast’s Waterfront Hall on numerous occasions, and often have over 250 participants in their larger concerts. Jonathan is increasingly in demand as a writer and speaker, occasionally contributing to programmes like Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day and Morning Service.
In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2020, Jonathan was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to Music in Northern Ireland. He enjoys being a Federation adjudicator because he finds it immensely satisfying to play a part in helping people pursue their musical potential.
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.