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It's easy to imagine that some time in the future Fergus Byett will write a musical film score or conduct an important choir or orchestra.
The talented Year 13 Tauhara College student sat his ATCL (Associate member of Trinity College London) tertiary music exam last Friday, an undertaking so demanding that it is beyond the capacity of most school-age students.
And just three days before his ATCLs, Fergus was named the winner of the national NZ Choral Federation, SOUNZ Choral Composition Competition for his original four-part score titled Karaka Akau.
It has not all been plain sailing for Fergus. It took a lot of hard work and determination to come back and re-sit his ATCLs after failing by three marks in 2017. To become an associate member of Trinity College London, Fergus travelled to the Auckland Theosophical Society Hall in Epsom, where he performed five extremely technical piano pieces to the British-based ATCL examiner who will publish the results in September.