The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced the seven finalists for its Shakespeare birthday song competition.
The company received 100 entries from professional and amateur composers in the UK who all created a new musical composition, setting the words from one of Shakespeare’s songs to music.
The finalists are: Kieran Buckeridge from Bath with “You Spotted Snakes” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jonathan Fletcher from Stratford with “Orpheus With his Lute” from Henry VIII, Ella Grace from West London with “O Mistress Mine” from Twelfth Night, Greg Harradine from Surrey with “When That I Was and a Little Tiny Boy” from Twelfth Night, T J Holmes from Kent with “Sigh No More, Ladies” from Much Ado About Nothing, Josh Sneesby from London with “Under the Greenwood Tree” from As You Like It and Matt Winkworth from Oxford with “Full Fathom Five” from The Tempest.
The public have until 1PM on Thursday 16 April to vote for their favourite. The winning song will be performed at Shakespeare’s Birthday Bash in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre on Sunday 26 April.
The finalists were selected by RSC head of music Bruce O’Neil who said, “we’ve received many fantastic entries for the competition, which has been double-edged—it's been a pleasure to hear such a diverse and high-quality selection of songs but really hard to narrow down the choice for the final shortlist.”
You can listen to the songs and vote at the RSC web site.