On the 18^th March, Max, 7 Dolbe, won 1st place at the North London Festival of Music, Speech & Drama, in the Violin age 11-12 category.

Max performed Spanish Dance by DeFalla, the same piece he had performed at the Latymer Year 7 Chamber Music Concert but, this time, he executed it without sheet music. This gave the performance a polished and stylish touch. The category is for performers aged 11-13.

Max’ preparations for the competition were quite hectic. A broken string had to be fixed just before the competition, and in a last-minute dash, there were more issues with his bow, which he got fixed in the car on the way to the venue! But Max remained composed and delivered an exceptional performance. There were many talented performers with very technical challenging pieces. The adjudicator’s comment to Max was, “A performance full of energy and pizzazz! Powerful playing and Bravo for a super rendition of this firework of violin repertoire!” 

Max was really humble and happy with his consistency as this was his third consecutive year securing 1st prize in his age category! He was also fortunate enough to be awarded a £1,000 scholarship towards the Virtuoso International Music Academy summer course held at the Winchester College. 

This year Max has also signed up for the Premier challenge String Prize competition (the hardest category in the competition for those grade 8 upward at any age) in the North London Festival taking place at the end of April. He will be performing Nigun by Bloch, which he will be practicing a lot over the Easter holiday. Good luck Max!