YOUNGSTERS from across the Isle of Wight have proved their musical and dramatic prowess at a long-established annual festival, which went virtual this year.

Competitors in the 2021 Isle of Wight Music, Dance and Drama festival had to film their music, speech and drama classes and submit them for adjudication - rather than perform live.

Scroll through our gallery of photos above to see some of the many winners...

Students from The Priory School of Our Lady of Walsingham regularly take part in the festival and this year was no exception.

Remote practice sessions to help children with their performances took place via the school’s secure Teams system during the most recent lockdown. Even though they were at home in various locations across the Isle of Wight, it meant the children could keep in touch, share their news and practise the pieces as they prepared for their video performances.

Amongst the medal winners was Joel, who achieved a distinction for his portrayal of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings in the 12-13 years solo dramatic scene. Adjudicator Katrina Mulvihill praised Joel for how he "worked to capture and convey the very essence of this tortured, volatile character conveying his feelings with great honestly" and awarded him 88 marks.

A thrilled Joel said: "I really enjoyed developing the character of Gollum and am very pleased with my result." 

Fellow pupil Amelia showed her creative writing talents when she also took part in the 12-13 years dramatic scene class. She achieved a commended mark for a scene she wrote herself and earned endorsement from the adjudicator for "amusing and witty" writing.

Amelia commented: "This year I created my own character which made it really fun."

Meanwhile her brother, Austin, took part in the 10-11 years boys' verse speaking and summed it up for all. "I really enjoyed the festival," he said.

Isle of Wight County Press:

Priory School's juniors. The seniors who took part in the festival are also pictured in our photo gallery above.

Emmanuel and Matthew Dela Pena, who are pupils at St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Ryde, study speech and drama with tutor Jeni Law and they gained two silver medals.

Matthew took part in the boys' verse speaking aged 6-7 and even though he is seven, he also entered the boys' prose speaking for the 8-9 years. Emmanuel entered the verse speaking boys' 10 -11 years and the solo dramatic scene aged 9-11 years.

Matthew placed second in the prose speaking and Emmanuel was second in the verse speaking.

Tutor Tressa Lambert's pupils had lots of successes in the singing classes. Vivian Read was second in the girls' solo for her age group; Harriet, a Ryde School pupil, won the girls' solo nine years;  sisters Evie and Merrin from Hunnyhill Primary School gained a second and third in their solo classes; while Harris, also from Ryde School, won the boys' solo, 11 years.

Ebb Phillips was another of Tressa's successful students - Ebb had a clutch of wins and also teamed up with Aaron Briggs and Jack Faulkner to win the vocal trio class.Isle of Wight County Press:

Aaron Briggs, Ebb Phillips and Jack Faulkner, who won the vocal trio class.

Another singing tutor with plenty of pupils performing in this year's festival was Linda Filby-Borrett.

Her successful pupils include Beth James, who won the girls' singing solo seven years and Talitha Monaghan, who won the singing 14-16 years carol or classical English song, the 14-16 years own choice of one Disney song and the 14-18 years folk solo, unaccompanied classes.

The music classes were also well-supported and one person who excelled in the piano classes was eight-year-old Caleb Zinnes, who was the winner of Bach class up to Grade 5; the Mozart class up to Grades 6-7, and the romantic composer class Grades 6-7.

Caleb, who attends Ryde School, is a pupil of Josephine Jolliffe. He loves playing at the festival every year and presented each of his pieces from memory. The adjudicator remarked: "Most enjoyable playing Caleb. I look forward to hearing you in the future as you continue to progress with your piano studies."

Piano tutor Rosie Hayward had several pupils taking part in this year's festival, including Izzy Stritton, who won the contemporary piano up to Grade 5 class and was second in the Grade 4 class.

She also teaches Connie Cronin, who won the beginners' piano class nine years and under section.

Another piano section winner was Leah Critchison, 11, who played Kangaroo Kick Box to perfection to win the beginners' piano class 10-14 years section. She's taught by Rosie Careless.

Thomas John Nash was successful in both piano and classical guitar classes with consistently high marks. He is taught by Jude Harvey for piano and John Nash for guitar.

He scored an outstanding mark of 92 in the classical guitar recital section, which was one of the highest of the whole festival.

Elena Cowley won the Grade 6-7 Woodwind class playing her saxophone and is taught by Ginny Kelly. Elena said she was extremely pleased to have achieved first place and grateful for the opportunity to compete, given the difficulties of the pandemic.

Finally, brother and sister team, Lewey and Annabelle Way, took part in a broad range of classes and won a host of medals and certificates between them.

Between them, they took part in the flute beginners, piano beginners, novice solo song ten years and under, novice solo song 11-14 and the duet class.

Their tutors are Louise jackaman for the flute and piano and Lorna Brownsword from the Ella Sheppard School of Dance for singing. 

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Click here to see the full results from this year's Isle of Wight Music, Dance and Drama Festival.