The Trinity Guildhall YouTube competition evolved from the idea of having a guitar competition at WYGF without the pressure of a live performance in front of an audience. Competitors were able to submit their best ‘live’ video recording and up-load it to their own YouTube account and each entry was then linked into our own WYGF09 YouTube channel’s Trinity Guildhall competition playlist for all to see and hear.

The final of the competition took place on Wednesday evening at the Bacon Theatre and each set piece was taken from the Trinity Guildhall guitar grade exam syllabus for 2001-2009 and judged by the composers themselves: Peter Nuttall, Helen Sanderson, Vincent Linsey Clark, and Gary Ryan.

The results are as follows:

Trinity Guildhall GRADE ONE – LEGEND by Peter Nuttall
1st. Oscar from Hampshire

Trinity Guildhall GRADE THREE – RUSSIAN BEAR by Gary Ryan

1st. Maja from Germany (Konstantin accepts on her behalf as it was past Maja’s bedtime!)
2nd. Hayley from London
3rd. Johnathan from Wiltshire

Trinity Guildhall GRADE FOUR – WEST COAST by Helen Sanderson

1st. Finn from Wiltshire
2nd. Helen from Gloucestershire
3rd. Ella from Gloucestershire

Trinity Guildhall GRADE SIX – CYCLES IN THE AVENUE by Vincent Lindsey Clark

1st. Michael from Surrey
2nd. Harry from Hampshire
3rd. Simon from Gloucestershire

Trinity Guildhall GRADE EIGHT – RONDO RODEO by Gary Ryan (Top photo)
1st. Ollie from Oxfordshire
2nd. Kristian from Hampshire
3rd. Joshua from Gloucestershire
4th. Zak from Hampshire

This was a fantastically fun part of WYGF09’s events, and a huge thanks goes to our competition sponsors Trinity Guildhall and Savarez for their support, and to all those who took part in the competition. If you would like to hear all our competition entries, please visit the WYGF09 YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/wygf09 and go to Trinity Guildhall Competition.

Trinity Guildhall have launched the new guitar syllabus which begins from 2010. Details of the new graded repertoire and exam format can be found on the Trinity Guildhall website.

Where the WYGF students have THEIR SAY ….

In homage to the great Cuban guitarist and composer Leo Brouwer we created the ‘Big Brouwer Diary Room’ as one of the little extras at WYGF07. It was here that students were able to go and air their opinions on the festival, but of course the serious questions were far outweighed by more important issues such as ‘Superman, Batman or Gary Ryan?’

So what we’ve done is put together some of our favourite moments for you all to enjoy. There are a few stars of the show as you will see, including our very own voice of ‘Big Brouwer’ – Gareth Proctor. I have no idea how many questions he clocked up by the end of the festival, but I think he deserves a medal.

It wasn’t just the students who took part though – we actually had some of the tutor staff  fighting to have a go too including Gary Ryan – (yes Gary, you made the highlights!) 

So I’m sure it will bring back some memories for our 07 students and staff, and yes, it has been a long time coming but it’s here now for you all – enjoy!