Angus Benton singing at the Competition
Chorister of the Year Competition 2015
Written by Angus Benton, Chorister of the Year
In June 2015 Mr Tarney and Mr Archer
recorded a few of us singing a hymn and
an anthem to send to the BBC for the Young
Chorister of the Year Competition. Then we
forgot all about it until September when I
got a very exciting phone call from the BBC
producer saying that I was in the Final which
was going to be in St Martin-in-the-Fields in
London on the 12 October. I was also really
pleased that Thomas Burkill was chosen as
the reserve finalist so we would be together.
Mr Archer and I chose my pieces – my
favourite hymn How Shall I Sing that Majesty?
to the tune Coe Fen and The Little Road to
Bethlehem by Michael Head, which I practised
with lots of help from Ms Jones and Mr Archer.
The day before the competition Thomas and
I and our mums drove up to London to stay
in a lovely hotel in Trafalgar Square. We had
pizza when we got there!
We had to be at St Martin-in-the-Fields at
9.30am the next morning and spent the whole
day there with the other finalists rehearsing
and having a good time. It was great that
Tom was there, as it was really nice to be with
someone that I knew well. The competition
started at 5.30pm and St Martin’s was packed.
I enjoyed singing my pieces although I was
very nervous just before I sang them. There
were four judges and the chairman was John
Rutter, whom I had never met before. He was
very friendly.
After all the competitors had sung, the
judges went off to work out who had won
and a vocal group called Apollo 5 sang,
although we didn’t hear them as we had gone
offstage too. When the judges came back,
they announced the winners out of a golden
envelope, and I was amazed to hear that I
had won, along with the girl winner, Agatha
Pethers. It was a fantastic moment which I
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