The highly anticipated return of the Inter-House Choral Competition, one of the longest-standing events in the College calendar, offered a feast of musical entertainment on Thursday afternoon and evening. The College campus has been filled with singing in recent weeks as the houses prepared their entries for this hotly-contested event. The audience of parents, staff and friends of the College were delighted by a range of entertaining and polished performances as they saw the 13 houses present a unison song, an unaccompanied part-song and a soloist.
The Choral Competition has always been a highlight of Epsom’s calendar. Not only does it underline the strong tradition of singing at the College, it also forms strong bonds in the houses and brings together the wider College community to celebrate the talent and dedication of our pupils.
Pupils and House staff chose and arranged their own songs and committed themselves to a rigorous rehearsal schedule. The unison entries were conducted by senior pupils and featured pupils wearing house ties, coloured ribbons and buttonholes, plus an array of entertaining props.
This year’s adjudicator was Mr Paul Phoenix, a Grammy Award-winning tenor who was a member of the world-renowned King’s Singers from 1997 to 2014. Mr Phoenix was incredibly impressed with the commitment and energy of the singing and congratulated the pupils on the considerable efforts that went to delivering such impressive performances.
He was particularly impressed with the soloists who demonstrated “nerves of steel” and were able to “effectively communicate with their audiences”. He also commented on the “team spirit” that was evident in the part-songs. The winning unison, from Raven House demonstrated “great humour and presentation” and was an incredibly polished performance. You can watch Mr Phoenix’s comments below.
The Director of Music, Mr Paul Johnson-Hyde, said in his concluding comments: “Having had an 18-month drought of communal singing, it has been delightful to once again to hear music fill the College grounds, whether it be the hearty hymn singing in Chapel, or impassioned Choral Competition rehearsals.”
Solo – The Trott Cup
- Mary-Angel Ngamali (Crawfurd)
- Barney Fildes (Propert)
- Beatrice Digance (Raven)
- Ben Garrett (Granville) & Alana Hinge (Wilson)
Part Song – The Carson Cup
- Granville
- White
- Raven
- Forest & Murrell
Unison – The Murray Young Cup
- Raven
- Wilson
- Forest
- Rosebery
- Granville
The Choral Competition Trophy (overall winners)
- Raven
- Granville
- Crawfurd
- Forest
- Murrell
Adjudicator’s Comments
