Chichester Festival for Music, Dance & Speech is under way

The Chichester Festival for Music, Dance & Speech is in excellent health and continuing to grow, its chairman Jenie Pressdee is delighted to confirm.
Jenie PressdeeJenie Pressdee
Jenie Pressdee

The festival began with junior guitars at the Regis School of Music. It continues until the end of March when we finish with a Gala Concert on Sunday, March 3 with input from many candidates representing all sections.

Jenie said: “This year sadly we do not have a dance section taking place due to personal reasons but this will return in 2020.

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“However the numbers for this year’s Festival are up especially in speech & drama and musical theatre sections to be held in Central School, Chichester.

“We have two full days of speech & drama ranging from a verse speaking class for Under 7 years to all ages including Adults in Shakespeare, Dramatic both Solo and Duologue classes, Mime, Sight Reading, Choral speaking and Prose Reading classes.

“Candidates are mainly from the local area but we do have candidates from Portsmouth and Worthing who enjoy our friendly and welcoming festival. We encourage the public to come along to see the various performances in all sections including Junior and Adult Singing to be held in Christ Church, Chichester; Pianoforte in Westbourne House School; Recorders, Strings, Brass, Orchestras and Bands and Woodwind classes in Central School.

“The Choir classes this year will be held in St Paul’s Church, Chichester when a number of junior and adult choirs from the local area will be taking part.

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“Many specialist adjudicators travel from afar to add to the quality of our Chichester Festival of Music, Dance & Speech and whose beneficial and sound remarks at the end of each session often remain with the candidates for a lifetime.

“Amanda Cook who this year is our adjudicator for the Junior Guitar section was herself a candidate some years ago and was taught at the Regis School of Music in Bognor Regis.

“Her experience as a professional guitarist who graduated from the Royal College of Music in 1998 and who has now performed throughout the country and overseas is a fine example of what lies ahead for many of our candidates who have the opportunity to learn performance skills through using our festival as their first platform.”