Music

The Music Department has spent much of this year developing new and exciting ways to rehearse and perform. In place of our normal programme of evening concerts, we developed year group bubble lunchtime concerts, which quickly became a highlight of each week. While friends from each year group were able to form an audience, the concerts were also recorded so that the wider community could see and hear the performance.

We did manage to re-interpret some of the usual highlights of the Churcher’s musical calendar: the Carol Service moved location to St Peter’s Church, where some clever filming of each year group’s choir enabled us to re-create the service as close to the ‘real’ event as possible. A virtual Remembrance Concert saw the year group choirs all recorded performing outside, accompanied by the orchestra of wind and brass players recorded at home and string players in their year group bubbles. Our amazing tech team spent countless hours piecing it all together to produce a beautiful video, fit for any Remembrance Concert, and one which will remain a lasting memory of this extraordinary year! We became even more technically adventurous for the Spring Concert, using a film company to record the Senior Choir in the College grounds singing ‘Waving Through a Window’ from Dear Evan Hanson, amongst others.

Given the challenging year our musicians had faced, we had one hope for the end of the Summer Term which was to achieve something that we hadn’t managed to do all year – a live concert! Following the relaxation of restrictions in May, we were finally able to resume our cross-year ensemble rehearsals, albeit still with social distancing. We had high hopes that our Grand Summer Concert at Cadogan Hall was going to be able to take place, but sadly when restrictions didn’t ease in June, that plan had to be cancelled for the second year running. And so, we set about working out how to enable parents to see and hear the amazing work that had been taking place whilst conforming with restrictions, hence an outside ‘open rehearsal’ on the date of the Cadogan concert. Plans were put in place to move the mighty Grand Piano outside, in preparation for a long-awaited performance of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto, postponed once already from the previous year. The weather may have scuppered plans to move the Grand Piano, but we nonetheless ensured that George Whittle was able to achieve his dream of playing this wonderful piece with the College Orchestra. His extraordinary performance was not the only treat of the day: Anna Lezdkan had also been preparing a concerto and performed the Carmen Fantasy by Sarasate – and again, this was truly virtuosic playing at its best! We were treated to exceptionally exciting playing from not only the College Orchestra, but also from the Junior Orchestra (75 musicians consisting of the Junior Wind Band and Junior Strings ensembles), the Jazz Band (with the very talented Florrie Ransom singing ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’), all the strings in the school playing ‘Dreams of Fireflies’ with the amazing guitar player Alex Way and the Senior Wind Band who delighted us with three wonderful pieces. Our singers were also in good voice! The year group choirs have been a great success and when we joined all the singers together, the Senior Choir totalled 95 and the Junior Choir 55, so when put together to sing an ever popular ‘Queen’ medley, the volume level was impressive even if it was

outside! The SSA and Senior Chamber Choir treated us to some wonderful music, with madrigals from the SSA choir and a collection of movements from the beautiful Liebeslieder Walzer by Brahms, sung by the Senior Chamber Choir and accompanied on the piano by George Whittle and Valentina Seferinova. One can always rely on the Barbershop to offer a complete contrast to our programme of music and given that the England football team were due to play the Quarterfinals of the Euros that evening, it was inevitable that the boys would be getting everyone in the zone with their rendition of ‘Three Lions’!

Whether outside or inside, it really doesn’t matter. It was clear from that Saturday that our musicians were no less impressive and our audience no less enthusiastic, which is truly remarkable and a fitting end to our musical year.

Mrs H Purchase

Orchestra & Jazz Band Tour July 2021

With a truly terrific amount of effort and against all the odds, the Music Department managed to create a fantastic tour for the orchestra and jazz band. While Europe was off the cards, we took our tour around Somerset and Devon in the equally beautiful weather. It was a week of music, fun, and of course, getting very, very wet!

Our accommodation – a gorgeous manor house in a picturesque valley which we had entirely to ourselves - was perfect for rehearsals, our music bouncing off the hills back to us with just the sheep as our audience. Our first big activity: a morning of watersports, followed by a quick change from our soggy wetsuits to our performance suits and dresses, complete with the iconic Churchers’ cummerbund, and off to our first performance, playing in Sidmouth, in a beautiful public garden with a stunning backdrop of red cliffs and blue seas.

After a precious half hour lie-in, we were off again to Torquay, where we performed beside the harbour. It was a beautiful spot, despite the sweltering heat. Luckily, that afternoon was spent on the beach, swimming, sunbathing, and exploring the pier. It also turns out that one never grows out of sandcastles, as Mr. Wickham rightfully taught us. That evening we dined on delicious Latin American food, and as a last night celebration sang songs in the dark outside Nettlecombe, accompanied by Mr. James’ guitar.

That wasn’t quite the end, however... our final performance was at the most spectacular venue yet, with the backdrop of the stunning Wells Cathedral before we headed off home. It truly was a fantastic week, and even though we may have been more local than a usual tour, there is no doubt the experience was as enjoyable as always.

Anna Hughes (L6)