Home-grown Norfolk solo tenor and member of the classical ‘boy band’ BLAKE, Humphrey Berney who grew up in Hockering, made a return to Taverham Hall School on Thursday 25th February.
Humphrey acted as the adjudicator for our annual Bullard Singing & Music Competition – a competition he remembers taking part in himself when he was a pupil at the school between 1985 and 1991. “ It started here at Taverham Hall, singing in the choir – lots of it. My love of singing developed here alongside playing rugby for the 1st XV”. His passion for singing was instilled whilst, he told the pupils, “I immersed myself in every aspect of school life” which resulted in him winning a Music Scholarship to local senior school Gresham’s.
Twenty children competed in what was a mix of instrumental and voice entries each choosing their own piece of favoured music. The event was organised and lead by Taverham Hall’s Director of Music, Mr William Drew-Batty.
The competition took place in the Inner Hall in front of an appreciative audience. At the end of each section, Junior and Senior, Humphrey provided excellent comments for all the musicians which were both constructive and encouraging. Click here to view the list of participants
In the Junior category (Years 3-5), Louisa Crabtree won the battle of the voices for her “lovely quality of sound and evident enjoyment” whilst singing ‘I Need A Boatman’. “Confident and smiling” Miriam Whadcoat triumphed as the instrumental winner, “capturing the mood very well” of her chosen grade 3 piece ‘Toffee Tango’ by Paul Harris on her flute. Jemma Crossley was awarded runner up for impressing Humphrey with her “confident display of a difficult grade 4 piano piece” ‘Sonatina’, 2nd Mvt by M. Clementi.
In the Senior category (Years 6-8) the pressure was on for our judge (who plays the piano and drum kit himself) to choose the winners. Two outstanding voice performances resulted in Natasha Morrison winning a first place for “her good voice and singing with conviction” of ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ by L.Bart whilst Benjamin Hall was awarded Runner Up for “singing really, really well with excellent lines”. Cecily Rainey won the instrumental competition for her “commitment to the piece and well performed” execution of grade 5 piece ‘Orientale’ by Cui on her Oboe “such a difficult instrument to play”.
Humphrey enjoyed the big variety in the chosen pieces and complimented all entrants encouraging them to “keep practising and enjoying music”! He emphasised to take part in as much as you can “It’s important to be as rounded as possible. Music allows you to develop great social skills by playing music with others as well as developing confidence whilst undertaking a performance. Music is something which will stay with you for the rest of your life but most importantly it’s fun”.
To not just ‘talk the talk’ Humphrey finished the competition singing ‘Summer Time’ by George Gershwin, accompanied by Mr William Drew-Batty at the piano, which was a real treat and the perfect ending to a very enjoyable afternoon at Taverham Hall School.
BLAKE’s new album ‘Together’ has been nominated for ‘Album of the Year’ by the prestigious Classical Brits awards. Fans’ online votes are the only deciding factor and Humphrey is appealing to all people in East Anglia to get behind them and get voting.
To vote please visit their website www.blakeofficial.com or www.brits.co.uk/classicalbrits/ where you can add your votes till 22nd April.
to read the recent article in the EDP Newspaper re Humprhey’s band BLAKE and their nomination please click on the link below:
http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/edp24/default/search.aspx?searchparam=blake