On Wednesday 29 th January at Whitchurch High School, Owen Holcombe was the
Llanishen Club’s representative in the instrumental section of the Cardiff Area 5
Rotary Young Musician Competition.
Owen kicked off the evening, and raised the roof, with his version of ‘Hit Me’ by Dirty
Loops – a powerful and edgy song, with intricate rhythms and syncopation, alongside
some truly outrageous drum fills and flamboyant stabs.
His second piece, ‘Nosso Samba’ gave a fun Latin flavour to the programme. Again,
Owen impressed with his techniques across the whole drum kit and clever fills in
between the main bossa nova groove.
Given both adjudicators had backgrounds in the classical world and would have
never heard of Dirty Loops, it was going to be very difficult for Owen to win the
competition against some extremely talented string players and pianists. They did
comment, however, on how much they enjoyed Owen’s ‘energy’ and his obvious
pleasure in performing!
Owen has also bagged himself several offers to study Music and Music Technology
after A Levels, including at the prestigious Academy of Contemporary Music in
London.
A huge well done Owen from everyone in Llanishen Rotary,