Hastings International Piano Concerto

On February 22nd Mr Newell (Y5/6 Teacher) took a group of year 5/6 pupils to the Hastings International Piano Concerto at the White Rock Theatre. 

The competition’s roots go back more than a century to the Hastings Musical Festival which has been taking place in Hastings since 1908. It was revived in 2005 and has evolved into an internationally-renowned competition for young concert pianists from around the world. In recent years its reputation has grown steadily and it is now considered to be one of the top piano competitions in the world, and one of the only ones that asks competitors to play complete concertos from the first round. 

The group had the pleasure of seeing Martin Jollet from France play Mozart's Piano Concerto no 9 in E flat major K 271. This was followed by his rendition of Ravel's piano concerto in G Major.

Martin is an exemplary and highly technical player full of brio and passion. After the show Martin came out to see our pupils personally and take some questions. Everyone in the group loved it and were simply entranced.

Artistic Director Professor Vanessa Latarche also came and spoke with the pupils and she was ever so pleased and impressed to see our school as such a prestigious event.

Professor Latarche is an esteemed musician having trained at the Royal College of Music and was a soloist with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra.

Every pupil did OVPA proud and everyone in the audience was so impressed by their dedication and engagement in the concert. 

We hope to make this a regular yearly event for our pupils as this is a unique cultural capital opportunity. Arts and culture contribute to building local identity and pride of place. They aid the development of both social capital, which builds connections among people within communities, and bridging capital, which creates links between different communities. 

For more information on the Hastings Piano Concerto competition visit https://www.hastingsinternationalpiano.org/