When we were planning the 2020 festival, we had no idea of what the future would hold.
Once again, it was very successful due to the hard work of the committee and helpers.
In the Concerto class, there were only a few marks between the other competitors and the eventual winner, Daniella Nassar.
Well done to all!
The Young Musicians’ evening was very enjoyable. It was introduced by two drama winners, Dilan Silah and Shavaiz Munawar, plus Vishalini Kanthurapan with an excerpt from Pygmalion.
There were eight musicians in the Young Musicians competition:
Gauri Godbole and Josh Copsey – singing
Jo Lee and Zacharias Brandman – piano
Polina Matyusheva – guitar
Emira Kangesan – harp
Alexandra Scott – flute
Siobhan Downey – recorder
The Deputy Mayor of Redbridge, Councillor Mrs Joyce Ryan, presented the shield to the winner, Zacharias Brandman.
Once again we wish to thank Forest School for their help and support. We were one of very few festivals able to take place in 2020.
Sadly it is difficult to know when we will be able to hold our next live festival.
However, the Stratford & East London Music Festival has no plans to disappear any time soon. Thanks to extremely hard work by the committee, a ‘virtual’ festival will be held in 2021.
Being one of the few committee members unable to cope with Zoom and technical matters, I can only admire what is planned, and the commitment of our members.
We have been given valuable practical advice by adjudicator, James Kirby; and Lorna Redburn will be collating video submissions, editing them together for adjudicators and producing private links for participants to review afterwards.
We hope that our regular participants will welcome the chance to take part and we look forward to receiving entries from outside London and further afield.
Good luck to you all and keep safe.
Maureen Westcott
Festival Secretary