New Forest Children's Choir - results from Llangollen International Eisteddfod

On Thursday this week, the New Forest Children's Choir competed against choirs from around the world in the Junior Children's Category of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. 

This was a fierce competition which included choirs from Russia, China, Hong Kong, The Channel Islands, England and Wales.  Each choir performed a set piece "Make me a Light" by Philip Wilby and a contrasting piece of their choice.  Each piece was marked inidivually by the judges with scores for each being given out of 100.  A member of the LLangollen staff warned us before the competition that "no first time competitor ever scores over 90".  Well. that was a challenge !! 

Based on previous results in the competition, we knew that it would be hard to beat the Welsh choirs on home turf.  We did our very best and the choir sounded beautiful.  When the adjudicators gave their comments, we could not have been happier; John Fitzpatrick said of the choir "This is music making of the very highest standard".

We were awarded 95 for "Make me a Light" and 92 for "A Smugglers Song" - giving us a grand total of 187.  We were just pipped to first place by one point with a score of 188 by Ysgol Gerdd Ceredigion of Wales who were also last years winner.  Congratulations to them.

You can hear our performance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7KgzC_a07k