All posts by Mr Gordon

Scottish Young Musician Final 2025

Massive congratulations to Gregor C. in S4 who participated in the final of the prestigious Scottish Young Musician final at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on Sunday 25th May.

Finalists represented each of Scotland’s 32 local council areas, with Gregor representing East Ayrshire after winning the East Ayrshire Young Musician Competition last month.

Gregor performed Ney Rosauro’s marimba concerto, demonstrating the virtuosic qualities of the instrument in this jazzy, Brazilian influenced work. His performance was clearly well-received by the judges, who selected him as the winner of the percussion category. Congratulations Gregor on this wonderful achievement!

Young Musician Competition 2025

Last Thursday 27th March, the music department hosted its annual Young Musician competition. Ayrshire-born musician Ross Montgomery was tasked with the difficult decision of adjudicating.

The S1-S2 category winner was chosen as S2 flautist Oscar W. performing Telemann’s Sonata in F. In the S3-S4 category, the runner up was chosen as S4 pupil Greg C. who performed the first movement of Rosauro’s marimba concerto. The S3-S4 winner was Lily F. in S3 who performed Hurlstone’s Ballade on clarinet. Both Gregor and Lily will now represent the school at the East Ayrshire Young Musician on 24th April. We wish them both the best of luck.

Congratulations to all 14 young musicians who performed confidently and demonstrated the wide range of talent at Stewarton Academy. All participants have received points towards their house totals for demonstrating the school value of determination.

Wind Band success at Scottish Concert Band Festival final!

Congratulations to our Senior Wind Band who performed excellently at the national finals of the Scottish Concert Band Festival in Perth on Saturday 15th March.

Their performance gained them the fantastic result of a Gold Plus award! We would also like to congratulate the Stewarton Academy pupils who performed in the East Ayrshire Percussion Ensemble and Stewarton Winds who were both awarded Platinum Awards. 

These amazing achievements are testament to the continued hard work, commitment and teamwork demonstrated by our young musicians and instructors.

Music Council Christmas Fundraising Success

Congratulations to the Stewarton Academy Music Council who successfully raised over £110 at the Christmas Market on Thursday evening.

Council members worked hard to create and sell Christmas tree baubles decorated in antique music notation as well as a guess the birthday game to win our giant pink unicorn Charlie. Thank you to Hannah M. and Holly R. for working at the stall. Our councillors demonstrated determination and responsibility, well done!

Rotary Young Musician Competition

Well done Gregor C. and Sarah W. who performed well on Monday evening at the New Laigh Kirk in Kilmarnock and represented Stewarton Academy excellently.

Gregor performed the first movement of Ney Rosauro’s marimba concerto as well as Rudimental Ragtime.

Sarah sang Skyfall and He’s My Boy from the musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Well done to both!

 

 

Aimee awarded top vocalist at Scottish Young Musicians Final 2024

Congratulations to Aimee S.  (S6) who was awarded the accolade of top vocalist at the prestigious Scottish Young Musicians Final 2024 which was held at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. 31 participants representing the best young musicians from across Scotland’s local authorities competed.

Aimee’s prize will include a tour of Scottish Opera, a coaching session with their Head of Music, an interview with their General Director Alex Reedijk and tickets for their forthcoming production.

Clips from the day and an interview with Aimee can be viewed here:

In recognition of Aimee’s commitment to musical success, Chief Executive of East Ayrshire Council, Eddie Fraser, invited Aimee to a Civic Recognition event on 21st June. She is pictured below with Provost John Todd and Depute Provost Claire Leitch who also attended the event. Congratulations Aimee!

East Ayrshire Young Musician Final

Congratulations go to two of our Advanced Higher music pupil’s Aimee Sharp and Rhys Hamilton who participated in the East Ayrshire Young Musician 2024 final last night.

Rhys performed his own composition ‘Grave’ on piano, whilst Aimee sang ‘Still Hurting’ from the musical film The Last Five Years. Both performed extremely confidently and were a credit to the school.

Aimee won the final and will now progress to the national final of the Scottish Young Musician of the Year competition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in a few weeks time. Congratulations Aimee and good luck!

RSNO John Williams Concert

S4 music pupils attended a concert of film composer John Williams’ music last Saturday, 2nd March. The concert took place at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and was performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

For many pupils, this was their first time hearing a live symphony orchestra and they were treated to several familiar movie soundtracks from films such as Star Wars, Jaws, Superman, E.T and Indiana Jones. They also got to hear music from some lesser known films and the world premiere of a new piece called ‘Love on the Wing’ by Alice Mills.