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Saturday 8th November 2025
9:30am - 4pm @ The Thomas Hardye School Evening Celebration Concert 7:30pm |
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The programme for the day has now been released:
We are very excited to introduce the new Dorchester Young Musician Festival, in collaboration with the Dorchester Casterbridge Rotary Club. We hope that this festival is able to provide a solo platform for the many talented young musicians in the local area and that by participating, they are able to gain valuable constructive feedback to aid their future playing. As this is our first year, this year, we are limiting entries to those young people that play more traditional instruments. However, we very much hope that in future years, we will be able to offer a broader range categories to include different instruments and genres.
How the Festival works
There are five categories:
There are five categories:
- Strings (orchestral strings only)
- Woodwind
- Brass
- Piano/Tuned Percussion
- Voice (classical, musical theatre, contemporary and rock/pop)
- Beginner = for approx. grades 0 - 2
- Intermediate = for approx. grades 3 - 5
- Advanced = for approx. grades 6+
Classes
Classes will run during the day, from 9:30am – 5:15pm. Exact timings will be released once we know how many applicants there are. We will try to keep people of similar levels in the same classes, however, we may need to have some mixed classes, depending on the number of applicants we have. For students on the cusp of two levels, please just indicate this in the 'other info' section of the form e.g grade 5/6 and we will ensure you are with people of a similar level. If you haven’t taken any grades and do not know your approximate grade level, please indicate how long you have been learning instead.
Adjudicators
We are thrilled that we have three very experienced adjudicators coming to our festival. The adjudicators will give supportive feedback to each participant at the end of each class.
Our three adjudicators are: Duncan Honeybourne (piano), Clare Jackson (woodwind, strings), Philip Pooley (brass, voice)
Evening Concert
The main emphasis of the festival will be on all participants taking part and gaining valuable feedback from our adjudicators.
However, in the evening, those students that we feel should be particularly highly commended, will be invited back to perform at the evening celebration concert at 7.30pm at The Thomas Hardye School Theatre. This concert will also feature some of the school’s ensembles. Students who are chosen to perform in the evening concert will be notified by 6:15pm after the festival. We hope that many people involved in the festival during the day, will also choose to come and watch the celebration concert. Entry for this will be via donation and there will be refreshments available (please bring cash!).
Rotary Young Musician Competition
This festival will feed in to the Rotary Young Musician Competition, which is a nationwide competition. Any students who we feel demonstrate an appropriate level of performance will be invited to participate in the district Rotary Young Musician Competition at a future date, with the potential to move forward to the South West and National finals.
Classes will run during the day, from 9:30am – 5:15pm. Exact timings will be released once we know how many applicants there are. We will try to keep people of similar levels in the same classes, however, we may need to have some mixed classes, depending on the number of applicants we have. For students on the cusp of two levels, please just indicate this in the 'other info' section of the form e.g grade 5/6 and we will ensure you are with people of a similar level. If you haven’t taken any grades and do not know your approximate grade level, please indicate how long you have been learning instead.
Adjudicators
We are thrilled that we have three very experienced adjudicators coming to our festival. The adjudicators will give supportive feedback to each participant at the end of each class.
Our three adjudicators are: Duncan Honeybourne (piano), Clare Jackson (woodwind, strings), Philip Pooley (brass, voice)
Evening Concert
The main emphasis of the festival will be on all participants taking part and gaining valuable feedback from our adjudicators.
However, in the evening, those students that we feel should be particularly highly commended, will be invited back to perform at the evening celebration concert at 7.30pm at The Thomas Hardye School Theatre. This concert will also feature some of the school’s ensembles. Students who are chosen to perform in the evening concert will be notified by 6:15pm after the festival. We hope that many people involved in the festival during the day, will also choose to come and watch the celebration concert. Entry for this will be via donation and there will be refreshments available (please bring cash!).
Rotary Young Musician Competition
This festival will feed in to the Rotary Young Musician Competition, which is a nationwide competition. Any students who we feel demonstrate an appropriate level of performance will be invited to participate in the district Rotary Young Musician Competition at a future date, with the potential to move forward to the South West and National finals.
Rules:
- Applicants must be 18 years or younger on 31st August 2026.
- Applicants must live within a 20 mile radius of Dorchester or attend a Wessex MAT school.
- Entry level is approximate and relates to the level of pieces that will be performed. Exams do not have to have been taken in order to enter.
- From the daytime classes, some performers are chosen to perform at the concert in the evening. Applicants will be notified by phone if they are to play in the concert shortly after the end of their class.
- A maximum of two pieces may be played.
- Each performer’s programme should not exceed 5 minutes for Beginner level, 6 mins for Intermediate level and 8 minutes for Advanced level.
- Applicants must provide a copy of the score for the adjudicators to use during the festival (photocopies are acceptable for this purpose).
- Applicants may provide their own accompanist, or an accompanist may be provided (please ask for this on the application form). If using the provided accompanist, a copy of the piano music should be forwarded to Wessex Schools Music (clearly labelled) by Friday 24th October.
- Backing tracks are acceptable as an alternative accompaniment. Please inform us in advance if a backing track is to be used.
- The entry fee is £10 and instructions on how to pay this will be given via email once your entry has been received.
- Places in the festival are limited and will be awarded on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No entries will be accepted after Friday 24th October.
