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“Just enjoy the experience,” advises Young Musician Elise

Elise L from Year 12 is the Ipswich School Young Musician of the Year 2023. We interviewed her about winning the competition and about her advice for future competitors. Plus we found out about her desert island choices.

How did you feel when you were announced as the winner?
I was pretty pleased and also very surprised. My assumption had always been that singers can’t win because it’s so different from the other instruments. So, when the judge told me that she had picked me I was shocked.

How did you choose the pieces which you sang?
They were actually pieces from my grade 8 exam that my teacher suggested. But in terms of choosing them from the syllabus, I am looking to go into a career in opera singing, so a piece from Carmen (an opera with a mezzo lead and my very favourite opera) was the ideal choice for me. I chose the Fauré primarily because it was an excellent contrast to the Carmen, but I am a big fan of French Melodie and I like to sing in French, so it was again a good choice.

What did you enjoy most about the competition?
As I mentioned earlier, I was under the impression that singers would not be able to win the final. This meant that I entered the competition so that I could ‘test the waters’ a bit with some performance ideas that I had. People who attended probably remember that I took my shoes off for the Carmen and I did this so that I could see an audience reaction and to judge whether I could repeat that in the future based on the reaction. So, I would say that what I enjoyed most about the competition was that it allowed me to
have a chance to perform without feeling judgement from the audience or from the other competitors.

What piece of advice would you give to anyone entering next year’s competition?
I would recommend not to focus on winning entirely. Obviously there will always be a part of you that is desperate to win because it is the whole point of a competition, but if you focus more on enjoying your performance and feeling proud of yourself after, then you can’t really go too far wrong in my opinion. Although you may have entered to win, you are in the final because you are a talented musician and performing solely to win can cause unnecessary nerves and mistakes that don’t need to be there. Just enjoy the experience.

What piece of music would you take to a desert island with you?
At the moment, I’m trying to memorise a particularly difficult arrangement by the Swingles for the school’s Show Choir, so I probably ought to take that with me to the desert island so that I can practise! But if I could only pick my favourite, I would choose ‘Je dis, que rien ne m’epouvante’, which is Micaela’s aria from Carmen. Despite not quite being high enough to sing this aria particularly beautifully, it is one of my all time favourites and I aim to practise this and eventually work my way up to it.

If you could choose another musical instrument to play, what would it be and why?
I can play soprano, alto and baritone saxophone but if I could choose another instrument, I would probably choose either oboe or tuba. Oboe because I am a big fan of the sound and tuba because I just think it’s really cool.

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