MUSIC in the Vale held their annual competition at Stanwell School, Penarth with singers performing on Saturday and instrumentalists on Sunday.

As someone attending the Finalists Concerts remarked Music in the Vale must be the best kept secret in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The talent of all those performing was absolutely amazing.

Probably the best ever in the history of the competition.

On the Saturday the winner of the Senior Prize was Angharad Kathy Davies from Bro Morgannwg who has entered for many years and is studying at RWCMD.

Jodi Bird of Penarth won the Intermediate Prize for the fourth year running with a fabulous performance of Don’t Rain on my Parade.

Manon Ogwen Parry and Llinos Haf Jones, both from Penarth, also won the Vocal Ensemble Prize.

Maddy Carver and Elinor Gent and Cantemus choir were the other finalists.

On Sunday it was the turn of the instrumentalists to compete. Jack Ollier of Cardiff won the newly awarded prize of Most Promising Pianist in memory of Steven Burges who died suddenly in the summer of 2013; he had worked as an accompanist for Music in the Vale for many years.

Another resident of the Vale of Glamorgan, Jacob Court, aged 13, won the Most Promising Instrumentalist in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Ryan Rezgui, aged 12, and already at Grade 8 piano, played Rondo in D.K 485 by Mozart.

This was the first time he has entered the competition and is a pupil at Cardiff High School.

Alex Maxted and Nathaniel Alcolado enthralled the audience, winning the ensemble prize playing two marimbas. This was quite a logistical feat, in the end we had to dismantle a fire extinguisher to get the marimbas on the stage.

We had 12 harpists in the competition and six went through to the final so we were in a dilemma as to where they all could practise.

Winner of the senior instrumentalists was Jack Taylor, aged 20, playing the Saxophone.

Jack from Glasbury has entered many times and played Pequeno Czarda (Little Dance) a beautiful flamenco piece by the Spanish saxophonist Pedro Iturralde.

The full list of all the Winners and Finalists who come from a wide area in South Wales are:

Singers:

• Junior Winner Madeline Carver. Runner up Hugh Jones.

Finalists Lili Mohammad, Elinor Gent.

• Intermediate Winner Jodi Bird. Runner up Mannon Ogwen Parry.

Finalists Rebekah West, Llinos Haf Jones.

• Senior Winner Angharad Kathy Davies.

Runner up Eleri Gwilym, Catherine White.

• Vocal Ensemble Winner Mannon Ogwen Parry and Llinos Haf Jones.

Finalists Madeline Carver and Elinor Gent, Cathedral School Choir Cantemus.

Instrumentalists.

• Junior Winner Ryan Rezgui Runner up Jack Ollier.

Finalists Heledd Wynn Newton, Raechel Togden.

• Intermediate Winner Alex Maxted. Runner up Aisha Kala Palmer.

Finalists Jacob Court, Anwen Mai Thomas.

• Senior Winner Jack Taylor. Runner up William White.

Finalist Toby Swann, Siobhan Clough.

• Ensemble Winner Alex Maxted, Nathaniel Alcolado.

Runner up Jack Ollier, and Benedict Griffin.

Finalists Caitlin Morris, Cesia Rhys Lewis, Sara Mair Jones.

Aisha Kala Palmer, Reuben Palmer

Music in the Vale were invited to hold this year’s competition at Stanwell School, Penarth and would like to thank the school and its staff for all their help and support, especially the deputy head, Sarah Owen, and head of music, Kim Lomass.

Without the continuing financial help from the Vale of Glamorgan and their many sponsors they would struggle to keep this competition going.