Sussex Young Musician of the Year looks to the future with confidence

SussexWorld

Winning the Sussex Young Musician of the Year competition reminds 23-year-old Shoreham soprano Constance Starns just how much she owes to Sussex, she says.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now, huge

00:07congratulations are in order. I am speaking to the Sussex Young Musician of the Year.

00:13Congratulations, constant stance. What a fantastic achievement. You must feel so proud. You must

00:19feel so pleased. I do. Thank you so much. I can't believe it still. Well, how did it happen? Did

00:26you, was it just a great day? Were you in a, how did it happen? Oh, it was an amazing day. Yes,

00:32it was my first professional competition. So I kind of went in just happy to be there and very

00:39happy I got to the final and my friends and family came to watch. It was a wonderful day and it felt

00:46very friendly in the competition as well because all the choir were there and they were performing

00:50as well. It's part of a concert, which was lovely because you have a moment to kind of breathe and

00:55listen to some lovely music and then perform. And I performed last out of the finalists, which meant

01:02that the tension... Oh, is that toughest? It's quite difficult because you hear everyone else and you

01:07think, oh my gosh, they've done so well and hope that you'll do as well as they do. And it kind of

01:13builds up the tension. But yes, it was, it was such an amazing experience and I loved it every minute of

01:19it. And you had a lovely insight into why you won. The fact is that you won, the judge told you,

01:24because you moved people. You didn't feel fake at all. You became the characters. It was genuine.

01:31And you made people cry. And you even made yourself cry.

01:34Yes. Yes, yes, definitely. I think that's definitely what I always try to do when I'm singing.

01:41And I chose a programme that would show that I can move people. I chose a Baroque piece by Handel

01:49from Jephthah, which is about Ifis. She's about to be sacrificed because of her father made a deal

01:57with the gods. So it's quite emotional. And then that progressed to Richard Strauss with Das Rosenbandt,

02:03which is moving in a very different way. It's about newfound love in spring. So that was,

02:08it's beautiful. And the music is just glorious to sing. And they just move so well together because

02:15they're moving in different ways. And that's what I love to sing. I love to move people, including

02:19myself. Absolutely wrong if you didn't. But the fact is you had a lovely Sussex support. Your Sussex

02:26born and bred lived here practically all your life. So how is this competition success going to

02:31shape your future? You're just going into your postgraduate, aren't you now?

02:35I am, yes. So I'm starting a Masters at Guildhall School of Music and Drama from September. I think

02:43winning this award just reminds me of how much I owe to Sussex and how much it has made me who I am.

02:51I have lived here since I was born. And I have studied here, worked here, performed here. And so many of my

02:58friends and family support me throughout my whole career. And I will, yeah, I will never forget what

03:05Sussex has done for me. And I will come back regularly to perform because I love it. It just,

03:10it feels like my home. And yes, it will be quite an adjustment to move to London, I think.

03:18Well, you turned an incredibly worthy win. Constance, huge congratulations. It really is a

03:23magnificent achievement. Lovely to speak to you and very, very suspicious for everything that now

03:28follows. Great to speak to you. Thank you. It was lovely to speak to you too.

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