Reviews / Young musicians shine in ‘amazing night of talent’
IT APPEARS 2026 is the year of the voice, writes Carol Jamieson after attending the young musician of the year competition at Mareel last night (Wednesday).
Junior young musician of the year this year is Trinity Zalekesina, singing Cry Me a River and The Statue At Tsarskoye Selo. Her soulful round tone and strong delivery won over the judge which led to her award. She was up against some very powerful competition.
Emily Grieve sang wonderfully, showing a real appreciation for musicals and a maturity beyond her years. She chose Tomorrow from Annie and Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid. Two quite demanding songs which she carried off beautifully.
Marelize Meir, on piano, gave us a rendition of Fur Elise and Always With Me confidently and in time.
Kaela Mikolajczak entertained us on the violin with Sleep Song and Rebecca. Two very difficult pieces well managed.
The junior section of the evening finished with a performance from the junior young musician of the year 2025 Camryn Cheney, who displayed nice pitching and dynamic range with her song I Won’t Say.
Adjudicator Anne MacDonald was delighted with the range and quality of the performers this year again, making this part of her job very hard indeed.
Throughout the proceedings Eunice Henderson kept everything ticking along nicely with enthusiasm and humour.
Norman Willmore, who is the patron of this year’s festival, praised the contestants for their bravery – it’s hard to play in front of an audience when you are on the stage alone. He remembers being nervous when he was part of the festival as a child.
Senior young musician of the year is Martha Robertson, who sung How About a Dance and O Del Mio Dolce Ardor.
Martha also won the youth individual shield just last week for her part in the drama festival, so this is definitely her year to shine and I hope she will keep on shining.
She is a talented girl and the world is her oyster. She showed nice clear singing with stylistic bending of the bluesy notes in the first song as well as displaying a good range and lovely vibrato, rubato, phrasing and timing.
The second, a contrasting classical song, she sang with skill and mastery showing her versatility and maturity of interpretation.
She sang with conviction and style in Italian and had memorised the words of both songs which always looks more professional onstage than clasping bits of paper.
An enthralling and stunning performance, and she told me afterwards she “enjoyed getting to sing a classical song in public, there isn’t much call for that in Shetland”.
As with the junior musicians, the senior ones also provided stiff competition.
First on stage was Corey Burns. Eunice warned everyone before the music started to get their earplugs in and these were being passed around as the music was to be very loud indeed. And it was.
Corey plays drums very well indeed. He played two pieces to backing tracks, the first, Dance Like the Duane was a heavy rock piece that demanded a lot of energy from the drummer, the second a little more contemplative and dramatic demanding a good range of technique.
His fills were his chance to show what he could do and they were impressive. He showed tremendous skill and mastery of the kit while playing to backing tracks which is always a little harder to do than playing with live musicians. “Wow” was a comment I overheard from one of the audience when he had finished.
Eilith Gunn performed the rondo from a Beethoven sonata very well, some very difficult phrases and semiquaver flurries throughout. She handled it with confidence and maturity showing some beautiful playing shining through.
Her Hungarian Dance by Brahms is one of a set of dances based on Hungarian themes. They require energy and flair and are quite tricky to pull off.
Eilith did a great job showing us her love of music and her determination to conquer difficult tasks. She acknowledged the accompanist and the end of her performance which is a very important and polite part of performing.
Lauryn Reid was on next and grasped our attention immediately with the flair and skill of the opening of her first piece Etude in A Minor by the Danish composer Schytte (not pronounced as you would think!).
Lauryn demonstrated nimble finger-work although there might have been a slight overuse of the sustain pedal. The second piece was a complete change of style and mood. Very slow and sporadic with much in the way of dissonance demanding a high level of maturity of understanding from the player. Very entertaining.
Aisulu Goddard sang her way through two pieces, the first Se Tu M’ami demonstrating solid singing in Italian with good confident use of dynamics and showing a good range. Her second piece Someone to Watch Over Me showed an interesting interpretation with fluent timing and control. The phrasing showed good breath control. She entertained us with her beautiful, and mature understanding of the piece.
Our last competitor of the evening was Dougie Jamieson, who played two pieces on the flute.
Accompanied by backing tracks – again, not always easy to keep time while performing live.
The first piece a fast and furious arrangement of Secret Love. While usually a steady sonorous love song, this arrangement was the opposite. The jazzy accompaniment demanded much of the performer and he delivered with confidence and flair.
The second, a Rutter piece called Prelude From Suite Antique was a complete contrast. Lovely phrasing and control of the instrument. He showed excellent breath control exhibiting beautiful tone and confidence while moving through the contrasts throughout the piece.
While Anne MacDonald retired to deliberate her decision, we were entertained by last year’s senior young musician Andrew Laurenson.
Here is a young man with control of his instrument. His first piece was Gypsy Song by Balogh which had a stylish and sensitive start then quickly sinking into a vamp section.
Nice mood changes, trills, timing changes indeed a very demanding piece showing flair. The second piece was fast and furious with key changes and a very high number of notes per minute. Tricky timing and fast finger-work demonstrated he was in complete control. Very entertaining.
The adjudicator started by saying what an amazing night of talent, during which everyone played so well. She encouraged all the participants to keep playing while commenting on the fact that there were some clever choices of pieces which showed off the versatility and skills of the performers.
To sum up, this reviewer had a splendid night thoroughly reassured that the state of music in Shetland is still there for all to see in the hands of the young. Well done the accompanists and teachers without whom this would not happen.
I feel Norman summed it up well in his reflection of his childhood:
“The celebration of youth music in Shetland through the music festival was a vital part of my musical upbringing. Being encouraged to play with others and in front of an audience at a young age, helped me to get where I am today.
“It’s a great thing to celebrate young people taking extra time outside of school to also learn and practice an instrument and play music with their friends and neighbours at every level.”
The young musician of the year competition was part of the Shetland Youth Music Festival. The festival is hosting a gala concert in Mareel this evening (Thursday), but it is sold out.
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