Student competition success for Mina Jachimowicz and Nick Booth

On Sunday 24^th March, the Friends of Baroque Music in Yorkshire held their first annual Baroque music performance competition, open to students in Yorkshire universities.

Seven of the eight entrants, and four of the five finalists, were vocal or instrumental duos from York. The £500 prize was won by Mina Jachimowicz (MA Music Historical Performance) and Nick Booth (BA Music) for their impressive performance of Barrière's Sonata no. 4 for two cellos.

The other finalists were:

Cheng Li (soprano, MA Vocal Studies), Ying Lin (piano, MA Music Ed)

Weaver and Wood: Nina Kümin (violin (PhD), Laura Sutcliffe (violin BA Music 2023)

Jiali Chen (soprano MA Vocal Studies), Si Chen (piano, MA Music Ed)

It was a lovely afternoon of performances hosted at the University of Leeds and the students all did us proud!

We asked both Mina and Nick for their thoughts:

Mina: "We are delighted to be awarded the first prize in the Baroque music competition organised by Friends of Baroque Music in Yorkshire. This event was a fantastic opportunity for students to share our enthusiasm for performing Baroque music and for inspiring us to explore it in a historically informed way. Nick and I had a lot of fun playing Jean-Baptiste Barrière’s Sonata No. 4 in G major for two cellos and we are really happy that our excitement resonated with the jury and the audience. This competition was an enriching experience to my studies: I put to practice knowledge I learned on my Music Performance – Historical Performance Practices course and I received valuable feedback on our performance. I would recommend participating in the next FBMY competition to any student who would like to hone their skills in the historically informed performance of Baroque music and test their abilities in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Lastly, we would like to thank our teachers Mary-Jannet Leith and Tim Smedley for their invaluable advice in preparation for the competition."

Nick: "I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of competing in the first annual Friends of Baroque Music in Yorkshire Competition. I enjoyed performing Barrière’s Sonata No. 4 in G major as a whole, however the final movement was my favourite. Barrière demands a range of virtuosic techniques and musicianship whilst rewarding the performers with a range of characters to be explored. Whilst I only had access to a cello baroque bow two days before the competition, I enjoyed researching and performing this work and the whole experience has inspired me to research more to Historically Inform my Baroque understanding and performance for the future."