Dear Sir/Madam
I have been advised by ny daughter's new Vocal Coach to enter her into as many Talent Competitions as possible. I have been searching now for close to an hour and have found none, then I thought this was a possibility only to realise that we have to live in Basildon. Could you be kind enough to point me in the right direction to finding local competitions for my daughter to enter. Her new coach who she saw on Thursday for the first time said she was amazing and has a future. She has been singing at home since she was three and loves to sing, I just want to help her now that she is 9 and says she wants to do more with her voice.
I hope you can help. I wait to hear from you in due course.

Regards

Donna-Marie Foster

Dear Donna-Marie Foster,

I am a pianist and violist and have entered lots of competitions, most of which were in Essex. Here is a list of some in the area which I hope you'll find useful: Essex young musician of the year, Southend music festival, leigh on sea musical festival, North london music festival, Stratford and East London music festival, Suffolk festival, Norfolk festival, BBC young musician of the year, Thurrock young musician and there are many more. You can find out more about these by searching each one on google or go to your local music instrumental shop and ask for apllication forms and syllabuses for competitions also ask them for a list of some in the area. If you search 'The British federation of music festivals' in google you shoulg see a list of some.

If your daughter is talented it might be worth entering her for a junior department at a music conservatoire, such as Trinity in Greenwich, Guildhall in Barbican, Royal Academy or The Royal college. They are fantastic (I know because I go to Trinity) and get you involved in the music industry with the top people. The junior depatment teaching days are every school term Saturday for exceptionally musically talented 4-18 year olds. If you're interested you should enter as quickly as possible because the older your daughter gets and the popularity of singing will make it more difficult to get in. Being just nine your daughter is in the best position possible to become a formidable musician. Auditions are held around March every year and I think you have to enter before November(?), if you look for each conservatoire on google and find contact details you can arrange audtions. They each have a website and hold open days which tell you how they run, etc.

I hope this is useful to you. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me on brunettepianist@hotm
ail.co.uk and possibly let me know how you get on as I am very interested to know how young aspiring musicians are doing.

Good luck!

Simone Green