Stratford & East London Music Festival

20/08/2025

Hello Drama entrants and followers.

We have become aware of a full time 2 year Accelerated Acting degree course in Shoreditch, London that is offering a scholarship for one student from the East of London. Some details follow from the college together with a contact email address. We want to share this opportunity with you but we are unable to recommend or endorse the course.

Matthew Taylor
Speech and Drama Convenor and Chair of the Stratford and East London Music Festival.

COURT THEATRE TRAINING COMPANY

courttheatre.org.uk

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Email [email protected]

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05/08/2025

Ron Skillett - Past Festival Chair and Honorary Festival President

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Ron passed away on the 31st July after a long battle against cancer. Ron was a dear friend of the Festival and led it through some difficult times. For many, you will know him best for holding the fort, and waxing lyrical, in the Festival tuck shop. His words of encouragement, warm welcome and freindly smile helped to calm nerves and build confidence.

We will all miss him. It won't be the same without him.

With deepest sympathies to his wife Rosemarie and family.

God bless you Ron.

From Matthew Taylor, Festival chair, and all of the Festival Committee

23/02/2025

We held our Young Musician of the Year Final last night.

We were very pleased that Madam Mayor - Sheila Bain - Mayor of Redbridge joined us as our special guest.

Our adjudicator for the evening was Richard Deering, a very experienced judge with a long career of performance and teaching.

The Young Musician competition takes the best 11-18 year old musicians from across all our solo musical disciplines over the 6 day festival and invites them to compete for the best of the best award. This year's final included pianists, singers, harp and recorder.

The winner was Daniel Tahmisyan on piano. Richard praised the talent shown by all the performers but felt Daniel moved him the most. Daniel combined technical ability with emotion. Well done Daniel. As well as the Young Musician Shield Daniel also received a first prize of £250.

Other important awards made by Madam Mayor - Sheila Bain were:

The Felix Marr award for the highest mark on piano in the open classes. This award is sponsored by the family of Felix Marr. Their wish is that their generous prize of £500 will further the studies of exceptional entrants. This was also won by Daniel Tahmisyan.

The EPTA Cup is awarded to the most outstanding pianist aged 18 or under and was won by Desmond Zee. Well done Desmond. Earlier in the week Desmond won our concerto class. The concerto class attracts entrants of the highest calibre and has a first prize of £200.

The Ron Parker Memorial cup was also awarded to Senaya De Silva for first place across all Harp classes. Well done Senaya.

Each year we have about 170 cups to award and many cash prizes. Our Festival has a very wide range of classes including Choirs, Bands, Composition, Solo and Ensemble Singing, Piano, Instrumental and Speech and Drama. We attract entrants of all ages from beginners to the highly accomplished.

As chair of the Stratford & East London Music Festival I would like to thank the 500 plus entrants we had, their teachers, parents, guardians and acompanists. I would also like to thank the Festival Committee and other volunteers who give up their time to make it happen each year. Finally thanks to the Redbridge Music School staff who always offer us excellent support.

Matthew Taylor: Chair

21/02/2025

🌟Congratulations Desmond on winning the Concerto Shield! 🌟

Well done to the other competitors for your wonderful performances as well 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

21/02/2025

🌟Thank you to those who came to The Concerto Class last night!
It is such an amazing Class with such talent. Congratulations to the Winner who won a £200 cash prize and the Concerto Shield.

If anyone would like to enter the Class next year, do start thinking about it and practising 😊 We would love to see you in 2026.

This morning from 10am we have the Millennium and Confinemento Classes where competitors perform 2/3 disciplines each! Imagine someone playing the piano, then singing and then acting out a drama piece. 😃

It is a another fantastic class to watch.
Do try and come 😊

20/02/2025

Final few photos from the piano sessions - hoping to see all our participants again next year! 😃

19/02/2025

Day three of the piano classes.....

18/02/2025

That's a wrap for Day 2 of the Singing classes and we had even more wonderful young singers. Well done to everyone. By the way we do have a lot of adult classes too!

Tomorrow we continue with our Piano classes and start 3 days of Instrumental classes.

18/02/2025

A few more photos, from a busy second day of the piano classes!

18/02/2025

Fantastic first day of Singing at the Festival. Excellent start from these young singers.

17/02/2025

A few pics from the first day of the piano classes!

11/02/2025

This years Stratford & East London Music Festival is well under way. We have completed our online Composition classes and we had a fantastic Choirs and Bands day yesterday. Thanks to everyone who took part.

Next week we have a full week of Singing, Piano, Instrumental and Speech and Drama. Finishing with our Young Musician of the Year on Saturday 22nd February.