9 minute read
Music
As I sit down to think about the year, whilst there is a large amount of sadness at not having been able to give the pupils the opportunity of performing at Cadogan Hall in London, taking the Junior Choir to Paris to sing at Disneyland or saying a normal farewell to our talented musicians in the Upper Sixth, I am filled with such joy at what we have nonetheless been able to achieve.
We may not have been able to fulfil the planned large events during the Summer Term, but that doesn’t mean that the Music Department hasn’t been busy! Each week from the summer half term, pupils sent in videos of themselves singing and playing at home during lockdown. These videos were put together to form a short lunchtime concert each week and ranged from pupils in the First Year, to our musicians in the Sixth Form. Not only did some performances show a great deal of skill, but some also showed a very imaginative way of using technology. Oliver Fogelin stunned us all with his one-man Barbershop performance and Laurie Horwood managed to play a cello duet by himself! In addition to these concerts, two large ensembles were produced: the remote orchestra consisting of 70 musicians taken from the various orchestras and wind bands, playing a medley from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and a very large choir taken from our Senior Choir, Junior Choir and Year 6 at the Junior School singing ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight?’ from The Lion King. These projects were a huge success, thanks to the brilliant musicians who had managed to record themselves playing and singing at home with a backing track, whilst also ensuring that they had found outstanding costumes to wear! Our amazing tech team then put it all together to produce two very professional performances. In addition, we were then entertained by the outstanding Barbershop group singing their ‘Isolation’ medley. It was fantastic to see a few ‘new’ members that had crept in to the ensemble! So back to the year before Coronavirus took over our lives! The Spring Concert, held in St. Peter’s Church, took place a week before lockdown. Little did we know at the time, but this would be the last major concert of the academic year – and, with hindsight, I couldn’t imagine a better way to go into lockdown. The Senior Choir always like a challenge, but one challenge that we have never undertaken before is in singing sections from Handel’s ‘Messiah’. Wow, how well they all rose to the challenge! Their performance of various choruses from Part 2 of this famous work will long live in my memory, particularly the chords of the Hallelujah chorus ringing out around the church, accompanied by a professional orchestra. The evening began with some classics from the orchestra including the
exciting ‘Night on a Bare Mountain’ by Mussorgsky, followed by high class performances from the Junior Choir, Junior Chamber Choir, Senior Chamber Choir, SSA Choir and the Barbershop. What a fantastic evening from all performers! The period of Remembrance is always a special time of year and the Music Department was once again very much to the fore as the fallen in conflict were remembered at both the Remembrance Concert and the Remembrance Sunday Parade in Petersfield. The concert featured all six of the school’s choirs as well as the Senior Orchestra. Highlights on the programme included the stirring Barbershop male voice choir performance of ‘The Parting Glass’, and a dazzling display of violin virtuosity from soloist Anna Lezdkan playing Henryk Wieniawski’s ‘Polonaise in D Major’. Remembrance Sunday was once again a well supported occasion despite grey skies and a distinct chill in the Market Square. The Senior Wind Band provided music for the act of worship which included a performance of Rob Wiffin’s deeply moving ‘Evening Hymn and Sunset’. On 11 November, the school community gathered for the College Act of Remembrance with the laying of wreaths, Last Post and solemn procession by all present through the Memorial Arch. Music for this occasion included a rendition of Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’ by the Senior String Quartet, and a selection of late Renaissance pieces played by a brass quintet.
Cabaret evenings are always full of colourful performances, thanks to the fantastic staging, lighting and sound that bring the Sports Hall to life and this year’s Senior Cabaret at the end of the Autumn Term was no exception. Pupils audition for a slot in the Cabaret and these performances, combined with various ensembles (SSA, Jazz Band, Blues Group, Jazz Quartet, Senior Chamber Choir, Barbershop and Senior Choir) make for a very entertaining evening. Many of the vocal items were choreographed, including the 90 members of the Senior Choir who danced and moved to ‘This Will Be An Everlasting Love’.
Throughout the year we have held a series of evening concerts that take place in the Assembly Hall, which are designed to give the pupils the opportunity to perform solos to a ‘friendly’ audience, whether they have just started learning an instrument, or whether they have reached the dizzy heights of Grade 8 and beyond. During the string and piano evening, we were treated to two dazzling displays of virtuoso playing from George Whittle on the piano playing the 3rd movement form Rachmaninoff’s ‘Concerto No 2’ (helped by Mrs. Seferinova who played the entire orchestra parts on a separate piano!) and Anna Lezdkan
playing the wonderful ‘Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso’ by Saint-Saëns. These evenings also give some of our ensembles the chance to perform, including our smaller chamber ensembles. Through the year we have been treated to high quality playing from our recorder group, flute choir, clarinet group, saxophone ensemble, guitar groups, string quartets, wind quintet, numerous brass groups and our Chamber Choirs together with the Jazz Band, Blues Group, Junior Strings and Junior Wind Band.
Lunchtime concerts have become a regular event, whether they are being held at St. Peter’s Church or the Assembly Hall as part of our Music4Lunch series. Through the year we have been treated to many splendid performances, such as Oliver Whittle form the First Year who sang a very cheeky and entertaining rendition of ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’, to Harry Marden’s slick take on ‘Slam Dunk Funk’ on guitar, Amy Browne’s syncopated bass performance of ‘Do Balanco’ on the bass guitar through to Upper Sixth student Augustus Tranter, who was in the final stages of polishing his A Level performance pieces and delighted the crowd with a stunning performance of Debussy’s ‘La Cathédrale Engloutie’ on the piano.
An evening that never fails to entertain is the Rock School Showcase evening and this year it introduced the school to a large number of talented new students from the First Year as well as many others, ranging all the way to the Upper Sixth. The groups performed music by Queen, Muse, The Eagles, Toto and many others. The main event – the rock bands – were supported in the first half by some very impressive singersongwriters such as Harry Marden and Florence Ransom in their fantastic duet.
The end of the Autumn Term wouldn’t be complete without the yearly event to raise money for ‘Save the Children’. It is always a lovely evening where we listen to performances from various local schools. This year, the Churcher’s College contribution was led by the Junior Choir singing ‘A Whole New World’ from Aladdin and ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’, followed by two outstanding solos from Kirsty Foreman and Ross Calvert, concluding with the Senior Jazz Quartet. The Carol Service is always a beautiful end to the school term. The service started this year with candles lit and the Barbershop singing ‘Let There Be Peace on Earth’ from the back of the church, followed by ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ as the choir proceeded down the aisle. As usual, there was a great variety of Christmas music together with the superb Brass Group that joined in for some of the congregational carols.
Amongst all these amazing concerts, our musicians have also been involved in other trips and events through the year, such as our GCSE Fourth Year pupils playing and singing to the residents of the Stroud and Downs nursing homes, the Rock School inspiring the hundreds of runners taking part in the annual Butser Challenge and the Junior Strings visiting our Junior School to take part
in one of their full school assemblies. They introduced the younger pupils to the various string instruments, with some solo performances from James Moses on a double bass, Alec Scott–Plummer on the cello and Anna Lezdkan on the violin, followed by a very lively performance of a Queen medley from our Junior Strings together with the whole of the school joining in the clapping for ‘We Will Rock You’! Our A Level musicians are treated to a series of enrichment activities to enhance their skills and this year, the first of these was a Composition Skills workshop led by one of the UK’s most successful up and coming young composers, Robert Laidlow, where the students enjoyed an intensive three hour session analysing scores and receiving feedback on their own work. The second event was a trip to the Minerva theatre in Chichester to see a production of ‘The Butterfly Lion’ where the students received a fascinating insight into the evolution and staging of the show in a Q&A session before the performance with the show’s producer. A visit to Surrey University’s Department of Music and Media for an introduction to the prestigious ‘Tonmeister’ sound engineering course included a fascinating talk, which introduced the students to careers ranging from film editing to audio forensics, together with a tour of the recording facilities. The last enrichment event of the year saw the students participating in a Conducting Masterclass, and for many of them this was their very first experience of trying to direct an ensemble. This informative and entertaining session was led by Surrey University’s Director of Conducting, Russell Keable and as the students soon realised, it is not as easy as it looks! Each year, we take a coachload of enthusiastic musicians to the West End to be inspired by the talented cast and musicians. This year we saw ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, one of the longest running shows in the West End. In the Spring term, 40 students attended an impressive concert at the Portsmouth Guildhall given by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. The programme, with its enticing title ‘Power and Passion’, featured music by four late Romantic composers - Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov and Sibelius. Highlights included the dazzling virtuosity of soloist Tom Poster in Grieg’s piano concerto, and the emotional intensity of Tchaikovsky’s overture to ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Interval ice creams also went down well! The Music Department can be proud of another outstanding year full of high quality, entertaining events and concerts. Given the number of performances that I have looked back on here, it doesn’t seem possible that we were in lockdown for more than a full term. I would like to wish our Upper Sixth musicians all the best for the future and say a massive “thank you” to them all for their outstanding contribution to the continued success of the Department.
Mrs H Purchase
