Kendal College Students Dazzle in Mary Wakefield Competition

1 April 2009

Kendal College students took part in the Mary Wakefield Music Competition for the first time this year and were thrilled to win and be placed in several categories.

The competition, which took place as part of the biennial Mary Wakefield Festival held this year between 14 and 21 March 2009, saw Kendal College students placed in the following categories:

Songs from The Shows-The Stella Hamilton Cup
First Place with ‘All That Jazz’-Charlotte Taylor
And Third Place-Hannah Marsden with ‘I could have danced all night’
Vocal Solo-The Doreen Bindloss Cup
First Place with ‘Sweet Chance’-Hannah Marsden
Vocal Duet-The Burneside Trophy
Third Place-Brogan-Rae Anderson & Charlotte Taylor with ‘For Good’

Hilary Pezet, The girls tutor at the college summed the day up: “The girls found the whole experience really rewarding and thought that the Adjudicator, Vivien Price, was excellent in giving really helpful guidance towards developing as singers in the future. All in all, a very worthwhile, if not nail biting-experience!”

About Mary Wakefield….
Mary Wakefield was born in 1853 at the Old House, Kendal, the daughter of a local banker, and lived later at Sedgwick House, near Kendal. From her earliest years, she was a talented singer who, after training with notable London teachers, gave many charity concerts, sang at the Gloucester Festival and was acclaimed by many eminent critics. Barred by the conventions of the day from pursuing a career as a professional singer, she poured her love of music into a desire to make music more available to rural communities. She founded and trained a number of choirs in the villages around Kendal and brought them together for the first time in 1885 to take part in a “Singing Competition” to raise money for Crosscrake Church. The idea took hold and within a few years a large choir could be assembled to sing larger works. Several of the choirs founded by Mary Wakefield still thrive and still support the Festival for which they were created.

Mary Wakefield died in 1910 but her name and her Festival live on, still supported by the Wakefield family, along with many other local individuals and organisations, who all value her unique contribution to the musical life of this area.

Excerpt from the Mary Wakefield Westmorland Music Festival Website