News

02 March 2018

An unprecedented double for Lewis as he retains his Music crown

The de Mello Cup, awarded to the John Lyon Musician of the Year, will stay in the same hands for the first time ever after a virtuosic performance at this year’s final.

The competition, which survived the snow and ice on Thursday 1st March 2018, was won by Lewis Johnston for the second year in a row, after wowing the audience with his rendition of Henri Wienawski’s Legende.

Judging the competition, Andrew Carwood (OL 1976-1983) who is Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral, was swept away by Lewis’ performance, commenting afterwards that it had seemed he and his violin had become one.

The evening, attended by a hardy group of parents, pupils and school staff, saw 15 performances of huge variety from the category winners of February 2018’s House Music Competition.

In the Grades 1 – 4 category, Sanjam Singh improvised on the tabla, Arian Khan played Lodovico Einaudi’s popular tune I Giorni, Alexander Esau looped electric guitar tracks and there were double performances by Varun Valentine who sang and played cello, and Ethan Greaves who played euphonium and drums.

Presenting the category trophy to Ethan for his Dora and Bootsy drum performance, Andrew Carwood commented on his exceptional rhythm and style.

In the Grades 5 – 8 category, William Mitchell opened on acoustic guitar followed by Rahul Renganath on electric guitar. The evening’s second drum performance saw Aryan Rajan Gupta make the night’s loudest noise before Benedict Tate changed the mood singing Schumann’s lyrical baritone solo, Die beiden Grenadirer. Sebastian Clifford-Varley played Serocki’s edgy trombone sonata, Javier D’Souza performed Handel on his flute and Jude Hedges-Robinson finished proceedings with Chopin’s much-loved Minute Waltz.

All performers did themselves proud, but the evening belonged to Lewis Johnston, who received the trophy from Mr Joe de Mello, a long standing supporter of the School and former member of supporting staff in the Music Department.