Daisy Noton at the World Premiere of the Birds with composer Polo Piatti and concert pianist and accompanist Oliver Poole – image from daisynoton.com gallery

Daisy and Maisie – and the other HMF results published

The adjudication of the 2021 online Hastings Musical Festival (HMF) took place on Saturday 27 June and the results are published on the website for Singing, Dancing, Instrumental, and Speech and Drama categories. The entrants were allowed to see the entries from their class and, if the other entrants agreed, to share their videos on a private platform. There were over 500 entries for Dance,  over 200 for singing, over 150 for instrumental, and over 130 for Speech.

Messages from the HMF Chair, Lesley Moore, President Petula Clark CBE, and the Mayor of Hastings were broadcast on Sunday and the Mayor announced Bursary and Grant winners followed by the adjudicators’ messages and the results.

Daisy Noton, image from daisynoton.com gallery

The Molly Townson Bursary of £3000 was won by Daisy Noton – a very talented flautist who has been entering Hastings Musical Festival competitions since 2013.  Daisy has won many prizes over the years and, in 2020, was Hastings Young Musician of the Year; her performance in the 2020 Hastings Festival Finale was very much appreciated. She is currently a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.  She not only performs in the Festival but also gives performances around Hastings.

The audience of the Holy Trinity lunchtime Concerts last Wednesday 23 June 2021 were especially fortunate to see her play a Polo Piatti piece, ‘The Birds’, dedicated to Daisy and inspired by the multitude of birds that could suddenly be heard once more when human activity came to a standstill during the global pandemic in the spring of 2020. The Bursary Fund will help support Daisy during her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where she has been accepted to study the flute starting this Autumn.

Hastings Musical Festival awards grants each year and those gaining grants this year are:

Maisie Edwards, 2020 Bursary winner, plays in Cole Porter musical Anything Goes at St Mary in the Castle in 2018. Photo: Peter Mould

Alice Creasey, Phoebe Harris, Harry Parkinson, Amy Robinson and Maisie Edwards – who was last year’s Molly Townson Bursary Winner.

Hastings Musical Festival continues to support the following students who are in their second or third years of study:

Kai Cooper, Maria Crowter, Thomas Golby, Brianna Kelly, Lily-Rose Matthews, Ellie Peacock, Thomas Pickering, Abigail Reece, Freya Reed, Lauren Strevett and Jessica Sutton.

The HMF Chair, Lesley Moore would like to thank all the supporters who helped this year’s Festival take place, in particular RB Health & Safety, who have made a donation to the Festival for every Covid test they performed.

Covid restrictions allowing, an HMF celebration concert will take place on 17 October at the White Rock Theatre, giving Hastings the opportunity to see the talented performers in action on stage, and it is hoped that the fully-fledged Festival will be back in the same theatre at the end of February 2022 and the first two weeks of March.

Hastings Musical Festival is one of the UK’s largest competitive performing arts festivals, founded over a hundred years ago, and is proud to provide opportunities for talented performers of all ages.

New trustees are currently being sought to join the Board – if you are interested in helping with the Festival, please get in touch with Lesley Moore at info@hastingsmf.org.uk , to discuss how you could get involved as a trustee, volunteer or supporter.

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