The McClure Music School was buzzing this week as over 100 of the School's talented singers lit up the dark January evenings, competing in a range of categories in the Heats of the annual Farrow Singing Prize.

This annual competition is inclusive and there is an invite for any pupil at MHS to take part – regardless of their experience – and perform in a chosen style across a broad range of genres: from art song to opera, pop song to musical theatre, the platform is there for singers of any kind. The Heats dominate the Music programme across 2 days - with 4 and a half hours' worth of solo singing across the different categories, accompanied and adjudicated professionally with feedback given to each singer so that they can develop through the experience. The talent, commitment and drive of our singers to take part at a busy time of year made for an exceptional level of competition in every category this year.

The crescendo as Heats took place, winners were announced and those through to the Final arranged final rehearsals ahead of the hotly anticipated evening, the Grand Final on Thursday 23 January was the climactic evening we hoped for, fizzing with anticipation, building on the singing buzz from the House Singing competition last term. With only 14 winning places from each Heat winning a place and earning the right to compete to win their overall category and strive to be awarded the best Junior (Helmore Cup) or Senior (Farrow Prize) singer in the overall competition, the incredibly high standard of singing across all genres at both Junior and Senior levels made for a truly stellar line-up for the Final, and each of the 4 adjudicators saluted the calibre of performances across Heats in both the stellar Chapel acoustic as well as our beloved Recital Hall. It was a special experience to witness the step up even then from our Finalists as each raised their game, receiving some final performance coaching from our adjudicator, Dr Chris White (Director of Opera and former Head of Singing at the Royal Academy of Music).

After a sublime hour of vocal enchantment, our adjudicator took to the stage to commend each finalist before announcing category winners and his choice of Junior and Senior champion.

• The overall winner of the Farrow Prize 2025 was Josh G (Lower Sxith, McClure) and the Junior Helmore Cup Prizewinner 2025 (Juniors) was Nepheli K (Remove, McClure).
• Category prizewinners were Olivia D (Remove, Atkinson), Seb J (Lower Sixth, Collinson), Sophie S (Remove, Priestley), Oscar J (Fifth, Collinson) & Ren T (Lower Sixth, MacGregor).

Competitions can have immense value in adding experience, input and direction to each singer's journey through the School and, given the calibre of performances this year in particular, every pupil who took part should be proud of the quality of their performance across what was a breathtakingly competitive and exciting week that showcased the vocal depth and breadth of talent across Mill Hill. I congratulate them all. A huge thank you to our singing teachers, stellar accompanists and Music Staff for a huge amount of work put in across the board to make this an ongoing memorable highlight of the year and performance calendar.

Gareth Hanson

Director of Musical Performance