Glasgow Music Festival 2013 - Best in Class Mixed Voice Choir The Glasgow Music Festival is a festival of music, speech, drama and dance in which around 7,000 performers take part each year. In March 2013, Octave competed in the ‘Mixed Voice Choir’ section of the festival, held in the Barony Hall in Glasgow. The group performed Lennon & McCartney’s ‘Fool on the Hill’ and Stephen Schwartz’s ‘Children of Eden’. Not only did Octave receive first class marks for their performance, but they were awarded the title of ‘Best in Class’. The adjudicator, Marilynne Davies,(Head of the School of Performance at the College of Ripon and York St John) specialises in musical performance and education, and has led workshops and adjudicated internationally. In her appraisal of Octave’s performance, she highlighted that the group sing very well together and created a pleasing blend and balance across the ensemble. She summarised the group’s renditions as “an enjoyable and attractive performance from a group of eight voices who communicate well in performance.” David entered Octave into the festival to provide an opportunity to sing in the Barony Hall, and to receive a professional critique that may help the ensemble develop. David said “to come away with great feedback and the first prize was more than we ever expected. I’m very proud of all eight singers.” Glasgow Music Festival 2014 The group entered the ‘Mixed Voice Choir’ section again in the 2014 Festival, this time held in Wellington Church in Glasgow. Octave performed Lennon & McCartney’s ‘Yesterday’ and Carly Simon’s ‘Let the River Run’. Despite being awarded 88 marks out of 100, the group were only able to receive third place. The adjudicator, Christina Thomson (teacher at the Choir School and Ampleforth College in Ripon and an adjudicator for The British and International Federation of Festivals) specialises in horn and brass instruments as well as piano and singing. In her comments, she mentioned that the group’s voices blended well together and praised Octave for an “impressive and colourful” performance. She concluded stating that Octave created “a big sound for such a small choir”.