THE TRAFFORD YOUNG STRING PLAYER 2006

The 2006 Stringplayer

Sale Chamber Orchestra will be holding the Final Consert of the Trafford Young Stringplayer 2006 at 7:30 pm on March 18th in the Haden Freeman Concert Hall of the Royal Northern College of Music. Our five finalists will be playing

Bach Violin Concerto in E

Haydn Violin Concerto in C

Mozart Violin Concerto in G

Saint - Saens Cello Concerto No 1

Schubert Rondo for Violin

Finalists

Madeline Clare

Madeline is seventeen years old and lives in Manchester. Madeline initially learned the violin using the Suzuki method with Christine Boardman until she was nine years old, and since then has been studying with Catherine Yates. She now also plays the piano. Madeline enjoys playing chamber music and at Pro Corda National Chamber Music School in Suffolk. She is also interested in traditional music. She clog dances and plays folk fiddle with Fosbrooks Folk Education Trust. For the past three years she has been a member of both the Halle Youth Orchestra and Youth Choir. She is a regular participant in local music festivals, and was the winner of the strings section at the Heaton Mersey Festival in 2005. Madeline is currently studying for A levels in English Literature, Geography and Music and hopes to study Music at university.

Julian Fish

Julian is 14 years old and lives in Bramhall, Stockport. He attends Manchester Grammar School and is in the first year of his GCSE studies. He started playing the violin at the age of 5, is a former member of the National Children’s Orchestra, and a current member of Stockport Youth Orchestra. He is very interested in chamber music and attends the Pro Corda North chamber music course run by Penny Stirling. Julian entered Junior RNCM in 2004 and studies with Janet Fuest.

Imogen Holland

Imogen Lewis Holland was born in 1989 and began violin lessons at the age of five. She is a founder member of the Hallé Youth Orchestra, joined the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the age of fourteen, and is a member of the Manchester string ensemble, Capriccio. She won the Solo Strings class at Chester Festival in 2004 and with her quartet, the String Ensemble class at Heaton Mersey last summer.

Imogen is also a keen trombone player, winning a BBC Fame Academy Bursary in 2004 and reaching the regional finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year. She also gained a mark of 143 at Grade 8 in the 2005 Associated Board examinations. She is currently in the lower sixth at Withington Girls’ School and enjoys all types of sport, particularly tennis, squash and netball, thereby managing to break nearly all her fingers at least once.

Her free-time interests include keeping fish and watching television, and she loves all things dramatic, especially opera and the theatre.

George Hoult

George is 16 and is in Year 11 at Marple Hall School in Stockport. He started playing the cello at the age of 4 and for several years has been a member of The National Children’s Orchestra and then The National Youth Sinfonia, in addition to Stockport Youth Orchestra. At 13 he was runner-up in the Cheshire Young Musician of the Year competition and achieved his grade 8 distinction at 14. He also enjoys playing the piano and the bass guitar and is now in his second year at the Junior RNCM where he studies the cello with Chris Hoyle.

Martyn Jackson

Martyn Jackson was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He is seventeen and studies the violin with Deidre Ward at the Junior RNCM. He is studying for his A levels in German and Spanish at Calder High School and Music at the Junior RNCM. He is now in his third year with the National Youth Orchestra and is currently Co-Leader. He has participated in master classes with Leland Chen, Michael Davies, Katherine Hunka and Wen Zhou Li. At the age of 10 Martyn appeared in a Channel 4 documentary entitled “Don’t Stop the Music” with Simon Rattle.
Martyn has enjoyed considerable success in many music competitions and festivals. In 2003 at the age of 14 he was a finalist in the Trafford Young Stringplayer and he is currently through to the quarter finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2006. He has given many violin concerto performances around the UK including recently the Bruch with Todmorden Symphony Orchestra and Mozart Concerto No 5 with the Amaretti Chamber Orchestra.
He received the Junior RNCM Rohi Prize for Violin in 2005 and plays on a 17th century Jacob Steiner violin kindly loaned to him by the Benslow Music Trust.

History

The competition was originally the idea of the founder of the Sale Chamber Orchestra, the late John Walker-Jones. Sadly John did not live long enough to see his idea come to fruition and it was left to the next permanent conductor of the Sale Chamber Orchestra, Stephen Threlfall, to instigate the first competition in1988. In the Grand Final of the 5th Trafford Young String Player,held at the RNCM, he returned to chair a panel of distinguished judges. Click here for more information about past judges.

The 2003 Stringplayer

Results

The first prize was awarded to Jessica Wallingtonfor her performance of the JC Bach Viola Concerto in C minor. Chairman of the judges, Malcolm Layfield said "In the opinion of the judges Jessica gave the most complete performance."

Jessica Wallington

Jessica Wallington is seventeen and in the Sixth Form at Altrincham Girls' Grammar School. She comes from a musical family (both parents and three grandparents being Professional musicians) and started playing the violin when she was four. Jessica learned using the Suzuki method until she was nine, when she started studying with Ruth Parker. She passed Grade 8 at fourteen with distinction and then started learning the viola, achieving a mark of 142 in Grade 8 on this instrument. Jessica has a rich, active musical life at home and abroad. She sings in local choirs and leads the Trafford Youth Orchestra, in addition to playing in local professional orchestras and enjoying chamber music with her family and other musicians. In addition Jessica is a keen scientist and linguist and enjoys netball and riding in her spare time.