Over the past two weeks, the annual Hepburn Music Festival celebrated the School’s musical talent, and hosted a staggering 441 separate performances in 38 different classes across seven venues. The Hepburn Competition is one of the largest musical events of the year, and is effectively a complete music festival with all instruments represented across all age groups.
Ten professional musicians, including heads of instruments at the Royal College of Music and international performers, were invited to adjudicate the performances.
For Sunday’s Finalist Recital, eleven winners of advanced classes were selected for a final performance before an audience in the Great Hall. Musicians displayed the range of musicianship that characterises music at Oundle. Pupils’ mastery ranged from violin, viola and voice to pipes and drum kit.
In the interval for adjudication, last year’s Hepburn winner, Max (Ldr 2023) returned to Oundle from Oxford, where he is an organ scholar at University College, to perform Debussy’s “Poisson d’Or” from Images on piano.
The Festival’s final judging awarded the Music department’s most prestigious prizes to three performances that demonstrated the range of musical talent at School. The Hepburn Cup winner was Thomas (B) who performed “La Cottin & La Bellmont” from Suite No. 1 by Jean-Baptiste Forqueray on harpsichord.
The runner-up and winner of the Tatum Cup was Angus (S), performing “The Pump” by Jeff Beck on electric guitar. Kit (Sr) played “Elegie” by Alexander Glazunov on viola and was awarded the Bateman Cup for musical promise.
