House Music Competition 2010
- a display of great talent

Pictured above, the superb Fleur House ensemble and their accompanist on the harp

To see and and hear the winning Fleur House ensemble, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

The House Music Competition 2010 exceeded everyone's expectations.

The entire school listened, rapt not just by the music but equally inspired by the extraordinary quality of singing and playing throughout the evening.

The competition itself requires each of Hurst's 10 houses to produce an instrumental and/or vocal ensemble and a song involving every member of the house. They each have ten minutes in which to perform to the entire Senior School.

To ensure impartiality, the performances are adjudicated by a guest musician who knows nothing of the school and its houses. This year's adjudicator was Mr Leigh O' Hara, the Director of Music at James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich to whom Hurst are extremely grateful.

Opening any event like this is daunting but the Red Cross Ensemble (Danny Ansell, Richard Hadfield, Charlie Shotton and Tom Taylor) took this in their stride and performed superbly to the school in a rendition of Michael Buble's Haven’t Met You Yet.

This set the bar high for the rest of the evening and every single house rose superbly to the challenge.

Notable performances were given by Star House's ensemble of Miles Borrit and Patrick Haynes, Shield's Ensemble (which included their, by now, trademark swaying and clicking) and Pelican's Ensemble who sang Let it Be beautifully. The standard of house singing was high too and particular mention must go to Pelican who Reached for the Stars admirably, Red Cross, whose cherubic Any Dream Will Do will stay in the memory and Eagle who definitely did not give love a bad name.

Many congratulations to Fleur de Lys, the winning house, whose performances of Mika’s Happy Ending (by the Fleur ensemble) and the ever-popular Walking on Sunshine (by the whole of Fleur) brought the house down.

For the record, the placings were:
Winners: Fleur de Lys;
Joint 2^nd place Pelican and Shield
4^th place Red Cross

See and and hear the winning Fleur House ensemble; let your mouse hover over the black video box below and then click the start button on the left hand side of the control bar. Note: the video may take a few moments to download as it captures their full performance