Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year 2026

Everyone who took part was fantastic but of course there can only be one winner and this year. Charlotte English took the crown, her rendition of ‘I Read’ from Passion was exceptional, it was full of emotion and power which along with her 2nd song of ‘The Sparrows Tale’ had the audience in the palm of her hand, a worthy winner. Second place went to Taziva – Faye Katsande who sang ‘Last Midnight’ from Into The Woods with an energy that drew me in immediately to her world.  She followed this with ‘Peace in the Puzzle’ from ‘Turing: A Musical’ which was just exceptional, this is a name to watch out for in the future undoubtedly! This year there was also a 3rd place prize given to Rosie Sutton who very bravely took on ‘Getting Married Today’ from Company, which is renowned as one of the most difficult “patter” songs from the Sondheim repertoire, so much so there were murmurs of shock from the audience at the announcement that Rosie would be signing it but she absolutely proved to us all that she could perform it with perfect energy and comedic timing which contrasted wonderfully with her choice from the world of new UK musicals of ‘Colour in my Cheeks’ from ‘Heart of Winter’ which was a warm romantic style song that showed us her beautiful voice wonderfully.

There were many other standouts throughout the afternoon, in particular I enjoyed Cait Du Feu who sang ‘I Wish I Could Forget You’ from ‘Passion’ and ‘The Little Match Girl’.  Cait had huge stage presence which immediately enraptured the audience. Samuel Louis Bennett also blew the audience away with ‘Waiters Song’ from ‘Here We Are’ with several audience members commenting that they enjoyed the inclusion of something from a more modern Sondheim show.