IT WAS all a song and dance at the Swindon Festival of Music yesterday as singers competed to be top in their class.

Throughout the day the Arts Centre was filled with music from a range of shows, musicals, folk tunes and light operas including West Side Story, Willy Wonka, The Mikado and Pocahontas.

The day was rounded off with the Junior Vocal Championship, where 25 winners who already topped their various classes competed for the RG Cripps Challenge Trophy.

Winners in the Junior Vocal Championship will go on to compete against other championship winners in Saturday’s Supreme Championship.

On Wednesday musicians competed in a similar competition to be crowned Instrumental Champion and win the Instrumental Challenge Cup. A dozen of Swindon’s most gifted musicians went head to head in the challenge after already topping their respective classes, but it was violinist Anahita Falaki who walked away with the top prize.

Geoff Walters, chairman of the Swindon Music Festival, said: “it was a pretty remarkable evening.

“We have known Anahita for a number of years and she’s been coming to the music festival for a long time and we’ve seen her develop.

“We then had piano solo for grade 7 and above and that was just remarkable.

“The adjudicator was impressed as well and said that their playing wouldn’t be out of place in the Royal Albert Hall.”

RESULTS

Wednesday winners

  • Modern Popular Piano Solo, 11 and under: Vyara Ivanova
  • Modern Popular Piano Solo, 13 and under: Mrunal Mane (Holmes Music Trophy)
  • Piano Solo, 13 and under: Zoe Tan (Jennifer Allen Trophy)
  • Solo to be played from memory,11 and under: Sriram Iyer
  • Piano Duet, 9 and under: Molly Matthews & Edie Hammond
  • Piano Solo, Grades 3 and 4: Cathy Wang (Betty Walters Trophy)
  • Junior Choirs, 11 and under: Ashbury Primary School Choir (A J May Trophy)
  • Duet, 13, 14, 15 and 16: Lucy Jones & Lucy Jenkins
  • Duet (Songs from Shows and Films), 13, 14, 15 and 16: Abigail Daniels & Isobel Cassidy (Ray Dance & Judith Sharp Trophy)
  • Girls’ Solo, 10 and 11: Tamara Lee (Holmes Music Girls’ Solo Trophy)
  • Novice, 13, 14, 15 and 16: Corrinne Emily Barber (Maria Chivers Trophy)
  • Piano Solo, Grades 5 and 6: Alexander Harris (Geoff Walters Trophy)
  • Instrumental Championship: Anahita Falaki, violin (Instrumental Challenge Cup)
  • Recorder Duet, Grades 5 – 8: Hannah & Megan Burkhardt
  • Piano Solo, Grade 7 and above: Kimberley Mok (Ann Wilkins Memorial Cup)
  • Piano Solo, 20th Century, Amateur or Professional: Kimberley Mok (Ada Fisher Cup)