Trombonist Kris Garfitt won the 67th ROSL Annual Music Competition Section Final for Solo Wind and Brass on Tuesday 12 February and was awarded the £5,000 prize and sought-after place at the Grand Final on 30 May 2019. Tyler’s 20 minute programme of Aria et Polonaise, op 128 – Jongen, Romance for Trombone and Piano – Weber, and BASTA for Solo Trombone – Rabe, was a talented and remarkable performance.
Four section finalists were chosen from 19 hopefuls during two rounds of preliminary auditions; competitors Lewis Banks saxophone, Kris Garfitt trombone, Matt Glendening clarinet, and Emma Halnan flute made for an electric and eclectic competition as each specialised in a different instrument and carefully chose varied repertoire to perform. The adjudicators Gavin Henderson CBE, Michael Collins MBE, Carol Jarvis, Geoff Parkin, and Adam Walker had a difficult decision choosing the performer for the sought after-place in the Grand Final and the opportunity to win the Gold Medal prize of £15,000.
Briton Kris Garfitt graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2015, and now performs regular concerts as part of the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. He was the first prizewinner of both the 2018 International Tenor and Bass Trombone Competition in Budapest and the 2018 International Juozas Pakalnis Competition of Wind and Percussion Instruments in Vilnius.
Gavin Henderson Chairman of the Adjudicators was delighted to also award Kris Garfitt the £1,000 Philip Jones Memorial Prize for an Outstanding Brass Player. The Sussex Prize for a Woodwind Player of Promise, also a £1,000 prize, went to flautist Emma Halnan.
ROSL Annual Music Competition Section Finals take place each Tuesday 7-9pm at Over-Seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street, London, SW1A 1LR:
- 12 February: Wind and Percussion – winner Kris Garfitt trombone
- 19 February: Singers
- 26 February: Strings
- 5 March: Keyboard
- 12 March: Ensemble A (Strings)
- 19 March: Ensemble B (Mixed)
- 21 March: Over-Seas Award
- 30 May: Grand Final held at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
Tickets: £16. To book tickets, visit www.rosl.org.uk/events, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 020 7408 0214 ext 219
Follow the action on Twitter @ROSLARTS and @ROSL1910
# # #
CONTACT AND IMAGES
For more information or press images contact Gemma Matthews, Director of Marketing on T 020 7016 6904 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. visit www.rosl.org.uk
NOTES FOR THE EDITOR
Founded in 1910, the Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) is a non-profit private members' club dedicated to championing international friendship and understanding. ROSL helps artists and musicians across the Commonwealth connect, collaborate and create. Our humanitarian work benefits communities and changes lives.
ROSL ARTS supports talented young artists and musicians from the UK and Commonwealth, providing performance and exhibition opportunities which bring their work to the attention of the professional arts community, media and general public.
ROSL ANNUAL MUSIC COMPETITION
The ROSL Annual Music Competition grew out of a series of concerts inaugurated at Over-Seas House London in 1947 under the banner ‘Festival of Commonwealth Youth’. The Festival became competitive in 1952, with a first prize of £10. Over the past 60 years the competition has grown in scope and prestige and now awards in excess of £80,000 for solo performers, accompanists and chamber ensembles. Past ROSL prizewinners make an impressive alumni of musicians of the highest calibre who have established prominent careers in the music profession, find a list of past winners here: https://www.rosl.org.uk/music/music-alumni
To mark ROSL’s centenary in 2010 an appeal was launched to secure the future endowment of the ROSL Annual Music Competition Awards and Commonwealth Music Scholarships, currently worth £125,000 per annum. The funds are held in the ROSL Golden Jubilee Trust (registered charity 306095). To make a donation contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.