Taylor made for Band Cymru horn star

Lowenna Taylor of City of Cardiff (Melingriffith) certainly made a huge impression on the judges in winning the 'Best Soloist' award in the televised Band Cymru Competition this year.

Friday, 27 May 2016

The Band Cymru competition broadcast on the S4C channel in Wales came to its climax in Treorchy during a live two-hour broadcast on Sunday evening.

No doubt

And whilst Tredegar took the overall honours and the £10,000 first prize, the judges, Graham O Jones, John Faddis and Colin Sheen ensured that viewers were left in no doubt to why the £500 'Best Soloist' prize was won by Lowenna Taylor of City of Cardiff (Melingriffith).

Her semi-final performance of Jacob Larsen's arrangement of 'When You Wish upon a Star' was described as 'magical' by Colin Sheen, whilst John Faddis said that it was 'so beautifulâ€¦ it brought tears to my eyes'.

Warmth and maturity

In the final itself Graham O Jones described Lowenna as the band's 'ace card' as she was featured in 'Somewhere out There' — performing, as he described, 'so musically, with so much warmth and maturity'.

Before the final announcement of the results Lowenna gave a wonderful reprise of her winning solo live on stage before receiving the specially commissioned trophy.

The award is the latest high profile recognition of the young Cornish player's tenor horn talents — following on from the presentation of a Mortimer Trust Award in 2013 which she used to commission the solo 'Bestowal of a Century' to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the presentation of the 'Royal Trophy' at the famous Bugle Contest.

Her semi-final performance of Jacob Larsen's arrangement of 'When You Wish upon a Star' was described as 'magical' by Colin Sheen, whilst John Faddis said that it was 'so beautifulâ€¦ it brought tears to my eyes'4BR

Ideas

"I don't know what I will use the award for yet, but I've already got a few musical ideas,"Lowenna told 4BR. "It was a wonderful surprise and I was more pleased for the band than anything else — we have a great organisation here packed with friends and players."

She added: "My boyfriend Dewi, who plays principal cornet for Tredegar, bought the solo for me and said it would be a good choice to use. I'm glad I listened to him — and I have to thank Jacob too.

He's already been in touch to tell me that he's sold 10 copies of the solo since I played it in the competition!"

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