Manx Music Festival

30/09/2026

Happy 21st birthday to the amazing EVIE SKILLICORN.

Evie is a true friend of The Guild - and of many of us - and we wish her a most special and happy day.

Evie, a hugely popular and talented Guild competitor, including winning the Sheffield Plate in 2019, is now studying at Mountview Theatre Academy in London.
Good luck for your future Evie. We know that you will be extremely successful.

21/07/2026

Happy Birthday to our incredible Vice President Mrs Eleanor Shimmin BEM.

We all love you ♥️

15/07/2026

We were absolutely delighted to hear that the Manx Music Speech and Dance Festival was represented in the presence of His Majesty The King.

Six of our Cleveland Medal winners - Ruth Tickle, Neil Taverner, Karen Elliott, Jane Corkill, Paul Costain and Matthew Quinn- had the honour of attending a garden party alongside His Majesty and many other distinguished guests.

The occasion was made all the more memorable as they joined in a rousing - and expert - rendition of God Save The King.

06/07/2026

Happy Tynwald Day! 🇮🇲
Laa Tinvaal sonney diu!

From all at The Guild to our followers.

We wish Jane Corkill a wonderful day as she sings at The Royal Chapel at St John’s today.

The honour of singing a classical piece during the Tynwald Church Ceremony is awarded each year to the winner of Cleveland Medal at the most recent Guild.

This year Jane will showcase her talent and we know will make us all proud.

03/07/2026

NICK ROBERTS - TRIBUTE

Nick Roberts’ life was celebrated today in a fitting farewell service at St George’s Church.

We hope his mother, Angela, sister Mandi, brother-in-law Paul, and wider family will read this and know how deeply Nick will be missed by his friends at The Guild.

For many years, Nick was a regular and popular competitor in his own right, as well as entering
junior choirs, ensembles, and quartets made up of students from Ballakermeen High School, where he inspired generations as a teacher for 30 years.

Nick embodied the spirit of The Guild. The photos we have chosen also capture his upbeat, humorous nature and his gift for joining in, having fun, and being part of the gang.

Nick won the prestigious Pollard Trophy for the Advanced Organ Class at The Guild and served as organist at St George’s Church for 30 years.

His Balla Boys ensemble, which he trained with diligence and enthusiasm, was called OTTO. Adjudicators would often say, “But there are more than eight of them,” and Nick would explain that the name came from the fact they were all Year 8 students. It was a small example of his ability to engage students of every age and confidence level, helping each one to develop.

Guild Vice Chairman Zoe Cannell remembers sitting with Nick in the Guild Café a few years ago, both eating chips. Zoe had known him since he arrived on the Island in 1992, when he became her GCSE music teacher. “We tried to find an unusual word to slip into the Guild social media posts and chose ‘terpsichorean’. Nick was learned, wonderful company, and we laughed so much that evening.”

All Nick’s friends at The Guild pay tribute to his presence, talent, and enthusiasm. In our
memories, he will remain forever terpsichorean.

10/05/2026

It’s been a whole week since the 134th Manx Music Speech and Dance Festival finished!

It was another eight days of amazing classes with people, young and not so young, competing in singing, spoken word, dancing and instrumental classes. Yet again our visiting adjudicators complimented us on our Festival, from the organisation to the programme, our wonderful stewards and the amazing venues. But one thing that stands out every year is how blown away they all are by the range and breadth of talent on the island.

A comment from one of our visiting adjudicators this year was how friendly, inclusive, and supportive our Festival is and how this is very rare in festivals such as ours; how much everyone taking part, especially our young people, encouraged each other and celebrated everyone’s successes.

The pinnacle of every Festival is our Finals night on the Friday evening with the Sheffield Plate, the Vocal Duet Final and of course, the Cleveland Medal Test. We also held the Pat Corrin Spoken Word final on the second Saturday evening.

This year Jane Corkill was our amazing Cleveland Medal winner, competing against six other outstanding singers. Jane impressed the adjudicator and the audience with her performances of pieces written and composed by Handel and Sculthorpe. Jane has been a long-time supporter and performer across a number of our vocal classes, and winning the Cleveland is a testament to her hard work and dedication. Jane is also a singing teacher on-island and enters her students into classes at our Festival too.

Our amazing winners are:

Cleveland Medal Test winner – Jane Corkill
Vocal Duet winners of the Billown Rose Bowl - Simon Fletcher and Lorcan O’Mahony
Junior Vocal Solo winner of the Sheffield Plate - Austin Pegg
Spoken Word winner of the Pat Corrin Memorial Trophy - Ethan Gonsalves

Pictured below is Cleveland Medal Test winner Jane Corkill, pictured with His Excellancy, the Lt. Governor and adjudicator for the evening, Christopher Field.

Photo courtesy of DK Photography.

https://www.dkphotography.im/

06/05/2026

Did you leave anything behind at this year’s Manx Music Speech and Dance Festival?

The Villa collect lost property throughout the eight days and leave it on display in the hope that someone might walk past and spot their mislaid belongings.

Every year they are left with a myriad assortment of items and this year is no exception.

Mostly water bottles this year, but for hygiene purposes these cannot be left much longer than after today and will be disposed of.

Below is a photo of everything still there this morning at The Villa, waiting for their owners. If you recognise anything you need to get there asap before it’s gone for good!

05/05/2026

What can we say about dkphotographyiom?

Dave has been amazing this year with his photos and all the extra bits and pieces he did behind the scenes, including helping out with queries and running messages to us too.

A perfect fit for The Guild Family! Positivity to the max for eight full days.

See you next year!

They've asked, I've said yes.... 😁📷

I'm pleased to announce that 'The Guild' will be having me back as their official photographer for 2027.

Thanks everyone for all your amazing feedback, comments and support during this years festival, you've all blown me away with the love you've shown me, so thank you ☺.

Manx Music Festival

05/05/2026

Manx Music Festival 2026 Results
Results for this year's festival will be available on our website later this week. Due to a few issues with some results not being transposed from adjudicator sheets to our official programmes we will only be indicating who won a class and who came second. This is to ensure we are not uploading inaccurate or incomplete results for anyone. We are looking at a more robust method for recording results for next year and beyond. We appreciate that the results maybe the only way for some people to keep track of classes at the Festival and we can only apologise for the issues we've had this year with the website itself and with the publishing of the results.