BSK’s La Camerata returns victorious
Young Musicians of the Gulf 2019 competition
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 12: Another year and yet another victory, the British School of Kuwait’s ‘La Camerata’ returned from the 2019 Young Musicians of the Gulf (YMOG) competition as winners in the Large Ensemble category. This is the most prestigious music competition of its type held in the Gulf region. Hosted by St Christopher’s School in Bahrain, the competition is open to all British Curriculum schools who are members of The British Schools in the Middle East organization. With 101 member schools and 95,000 students in ten member countries around the world, success in the competition is without doubt a great achievement.
2019 saw the running of the twentieth competition and the sixteenth time BSK has participated. Miss Galina Bojilova, the Director of Strings at BSK was instrumental in the preparation of BSK students, this too being her sixteenth competition. Accompanied to Bahrain by our pianist Miss Emily Jeffcott, Director of Performance Music, BSK students were very well prepared.
Outstanding performances were heard in the duet and trio category, and BSK’s newly formed Wieniawski Duet consisting of Vivian Sequiera and Luaidh Williams was no exception. Progressing to the second round, they performed beautifully. Also joining them in the second round were BSK’s two solo violinists; Vivian Sequeira and Sarah Aldashti, and on bass trombone Ali Alobaidan. Solo vocalists Mahima Juyal and Naomi Pereira performed wonderfully in the initial rounds and proceeded to the semifinal. Performing songs of their choice; Green Finch and the Linnet Bird and Climb Every Mountain, they made a big impact on the audience but were not able to make it through to the Grand Final.
The BSK’s ‘La Camerata’, consisting of a pianist, eight violins, bass trombone, trumpet, drums and chimes played a piece especially arranged for them by the renowned Kuwaiti composer Magdi Talaat, ‘Al-Aghani Al-Kuwaitiya’. They made their way to the highly competitive semifinal where once again they triumphed, being crowned the YMOG 2019 Large Ensemble winner. La Camerata would now perform in the Grand Final in the Sofitel Hotel, contesting the Overall Ensemble category, returning there after their victory in 2018 as Overall Ensemble winners. La Camerata pulled out all the stops in the Grand Final, receiving a standing ovation.
The next event in BSK for La Camerata will be at BSK’s Music Festival Week starting on 10 March.