Musical Theatre Competition 2010
RESULT
The Winner of the 2010 Tamworth Arts Club Musical Theatre Vocal Competition impressed the judges with her great vocal versatility and stage presence. Rachel Farr, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, beat off stiff competition from 14 other finalists, 7 young men and 7 young ladies, to win the Grand Final on Sunday, 4th July.
The competition, which began in 1996 and takes place every 2 years, is for performers between the ages of 15 and 25 and Sunday’s fifteen Finalists had been selected from 43 contestants who had taken part in two elimination rounds on the previous Thursday and Friday.
A packed audience at the Assembly Rooms gave a very warm and enthusiastic welcome to the young singers who were required to sing two songs each. The choice of songs and arias came from a wide range of musicals, operettas and operas, including Show Boat, Les Miserables, The Pirates of Penzance, The Marriage of Figaro and Wicked.
Twenty three year old Rachel sang Vanilla Ice Cream from the Musical She Loves Me and Una donna a quindici anni from Mozart’s Comic Opera Cosi fan Tutti to win the top prize of £1000.
“It was partly this choice of two very different songs, which not only showed off her vocal versatility but also her dramatic versatility, which clinched Rachel the First Prize”, said Michael Enscot, Chairman of the Adjudicating Panel. Mr Enscot, who is Senior Lecturer at Trinity College of Music in London, added that the whole judging team had been impressed by the standard this year, with some especially vocally-strong men, but it was Rachel’s stage presence and her ability to successfully switch from American “twang” style to an operatic voice which gave her the edge over her fellow competitors. “She had ticked all the boxes”, said Mr Enscot.
In Second Place was Kimberley Jones, from Nuneaton, who demonstrated a very impressive operatic technique in her earliest piece in the Competition, an Aria from Handel’s 1724 opera Giulio Cesare, while third place went to Ellen Holmes, from Burton-on-Trent, who gave an extremely convincing and entertaining performance of Show Off from the contemporary musical The Drowsy Chaperone.