Junior School Choirs Competition plays to full house in Tonbridge

One of the choir from Slade School collects the first prize from the judges.

Back after a successful debut last year, The River Centre in Tonbridge welcomed the return of the Junior Schools Choir Competition. Staged by Tonbridge Lions Club and sponsored by Tonbridge based Black Cat Music’s AcoustiCabin division, the competition featured seven local choirs numbering two hundred and sixty five children singing in front of sell out audience of three hundred and fifty that included many family and friends.

Tonbridge Lions Club told us, “The judges, Mike Kent-Davies, Nancy Gillio-Terry and Jean Allen, had a difficult task as all the choirs were so good in many different ways. They complimented each choir for the high standard of the performances and said it was wonderful to have so many junior singers in the area. First place was awarded to Slade School; second place went St Margaret Clitherow School and with the judges unable to separate the remaining schools equal third place went to Sussex Road School, Cage Green School, St Stephens School, Woodlands School and Hadlow School. Lion President Neal Charlesworth and his wife Janet presented the prizes. Each school received a cheque to help their music development.”

Alice Dagger, Marketing Manager for Black Cat Music, the leading supplier of music performance equipment for education in the UK, Europe and Russia said, “On behalf of our new AcoustiCabins business, we are delighted to provide sponsorship for this successful local event and congratulate everyone on achieving such a high standard of performance.” AcoustiCabins are affordable sound isolation rooms, recently introduced by the company to provide sound proof practice space in schools or at home without disturbance to others close by while offering a ventillated, acoustically controlled internal room for singers and musicians to practice in comfort.

On behalf of the Lions organising committee, Ken Thomas said, “We were delighted that the event was a great success again with all the choirs performing really well and was enjoyed by all those who attended.” He added, “Tonbridge Lions Club would like to thank AcoustiCabins who provided sponsorship for the event.”