Saturday, 22 June 2024 6.30pm
The Gransden Hall
The Merritt Centre, Sherborne Girls
6.25pm - 6.30pm Welcome by Dr Ruth Sullivan, Sherborne Girls Head
6.30pm - 7.10pm Concert – Part 1
7.10pm - 7.20pm Break
7.20pm - 8.10pm Concert – Part 2
8.10pm - 8.15pm Address by Old Girls Chairman, Danielle Grant-Braham E‘99
8.15pm - 9.30pm Reception
The origin of a school for girls in Sherborne dates back to 1898, when Mr Kenelm Wingfield Digby, MP for North Dorset and resident of Sherborne Castle, decided that a girls’ school, similar to the long-established King Edward VI boys’ public school in Sherborne, was needed in the town.
Mr Wingfield Digby put together a working party to help bring the idea to reality and approached Miss Beatrice Mulliner, an Assistant Mistress at Cheltenham Ladies College, to take up the appointment of Headmistress. The school opened in 1899 at Ransome House in Sherborne with just 14 pupils.
Within three years, numbers were close to 100 and the school was gaining a reputation as one with high academic standards. Larger premises were required and in 1903 the school opened on its current Bradford Road site occupying five acres of land, some of which was generously donated by Mr Wingfield Digby ahead of his death in 1904.
The new site heralded the first boarding house, Aldhelmsted West. It accommodated 46 girls on two floors, not in open dormitories but in ‘cubicles’, the style of which can still be seen in some of the houses. A second house, Dun Holme, opened in 1907 followed by the building of Wingfield and Aylmar in 1911.
New classrooms and a school hall were added to the main building; the hall was destroyed by fire only seven months later, but rebuilt within the year. In 1915, the school purchased more land, bringing the size of the site to 26 acres. The boarding accommodation now included a further two houses, Thurstan and Ealhstan.
The Clock Tower (home to the library) was completed in 1926, along with laboratories and the science block. These were shortly followed by the opening of another house, Kenelm, in 1928.
With 287 pupils enrolled, Miss Mulliner retired in 1930. She was succeeded by Miss Hilda Violet Stuart. During Miss Stuart’s tenure, an outdoor swimming pool opened (1931), along with a gym (1936), squash courts (1938) and another new house, Aldhelmsted East (also 1938).
Director of Music 1973 – 1996
Augusta arrived in Sherborne in 1961, becoming Director of Music in 1973. She spent a year in the USA as an exchange teacher in 1966, returning as a Churchill Fellow to study choral training in 1981.
Under her direction, the Madrigal Society gained many awards including winning ITV’s Choir of the Year. She is Vice President of Dorset Opera and has coached the chorus for 15 operas. She has also coached the chorus for the Sherborne School Musical Society and directed the IAPS Choral Choruses. In 1985, she was elected President of the Music Masters’ and Mistresses’ Association. Since 1996, she has taught at Downe House, directed the Sherborne Young Singers, the Cerne Abbas Choir and Marlborough College Summer School Choral Workshop.
Now in her retirement she co-hosts soirées, plays bridge, paints, swims, travels and tears around Sherborne in her buggy. She is a true Bon Viveur!
John was appointed as organist of Sherborne Girls in 1992 and Director of Music from 1996 until his retirement in 2022. He is currently musical director of South Somerset Choral Society, Sherborne Community Orchestra and Wessex Strings. Educated at Durham University, where he was University College Organ Scholar and conductor of the University Chamber Choir, his long and varied career began as a chorister at Bristol Cathedral, later becoming assistant organist and accompanist to several choral societies. Moving to the Midlands in 1982, he combined full-time teaching with the conductorship of the Derwent Singers and engagements as an organist and harpsichordist. From 2008 to 2020, he was guest conductor of the Variations Ensemble Vocal et Orchestre Philharmonique in the Dordogne. His youth choral work has embraced courses for the Royal School of Church Music, the Prep Schools’ Association, National Children’s Orchestra, Cambridge School of Music and Gloucester Academy of Music. He has led the Choral Workshop course at the Marlborough College Summer School since 2015.
Mark was a major prizewinner as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician whilst at college and has worked extensively as a soloist and accompanist around the world, on radio and television with young musicians including BBC Young Musician of the Year.
He has performed recitals, including a recital at the Moscow Conservatoire and given master classes in a wide range of settings including Southampton University, the cultural season in Dubai and the international Festival d’Art et de Musique in France and performed Eric Funk’s 2nd piano concerto with the New England Symphony.
Mark began his career at Wells Cathedral School following which he was Director of Music at Taunton School for 15 years and is now extremely fortunate to be following in giant footsteps as Director of Music at Sherborne Girls.
Ruth studied with Itzhak Rashkovsky and Herman Krebbers. Described as “the finest of the younger generation of violinists” (Musical Opinion) and hailed by The Guardian as “superb”, Ruth is in demand as soloist, leader, and chamber musician. She was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal - the Royal College of Music’s highest accolade. She appears regularly at such prestigious venues as the Wigmore Hall with Aquinas Piano Trio and has made many recordings as part of that ensemble, including recent releases by Naxos which have been very well received by the critics.
Ruth was appointed as Leader of the London Mozart Players in 2015 and Leader of the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra in 2022. She worked as Co-Leader of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra from 2008 until 2012 and appears as a guest leader of many other major orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic, Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, the CBSO and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Ruth regularly leads the orchestra of Gran Canaria and has performed as a soloist in many different countries. Ruth has played to orphans, landmine victims and malaria patients in refugee camps on the Thailand-Burma border.
Ellie George – Cello
Silent Woods Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904)
Charlotte Ewins – Recorder
The Delayed Flute Annette Ziegenmeyer (b.1976)
Susanna MacRae – Soprano
‘Povera me... O care parolette’ from Orlando G.F. Handel (1685 - 1759)
Olivia Moore – Violin
Raag Bihag Indian traditional
Lucy Cox – Soprano
Alleluia from Exsultate, Jubilate W.A. Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Ruth Rogers – Violin
Praeludium and Allegro Fritz Kreisler (1875 - 1962)
Accompanists: Mark Cracknell, Ana Manero, Martin Walker
SHORT BREAK
VIOLIN 1
Ruth Rogers (Leader)
Olivia Moore
Elisabeth Cawood
VIOLIN 2
Catrin Win Morgan
Sophie Sze
VIOLA
Cathryn McCracken
Lilias Lamont
David Price
CELLO
Clare Lowes
Ellie George
Diana McWatters (Darwall)
Chorus: And the glory of the Lord
Chorus: For unto us a Child is born
Recitatives: There were Shepherds; And lo, the angel of the Lord; And the angel said unto them; And suddenly there was with the angel *
Chorus: Glory to God
Aria: Rejoice greatly †
Chorus: Surely he hath borne our griefs
Chorus: And with his stripes we are healed
Chorus: All we like sheep have gone astray
Aria: How beautiful are the feet **
Chorus: Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
Aria: I know that my redeemer liveth
Chorus: Since by man came death
Aria: If God be for us **
Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb. Amen.
Lucy Cox *
Susanna MacRae †
Amelia Monaghan **
Mark Frampton
Juliet Larcombe (Burnett)
OBOE
Charlotte Ewins
Izzy Gordon
BASSOON
Anthea Wood
David Bertie
Matt Dury
TIMPANI
Harry Malabar
HARPSICORD
Ana Manero
Lucy held a music scholarship at Sherborne Girls before reading Music at Oxford University. She later won a scholarship for postgraduate studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, where she studied with Anthony Rooley and Evelyn Tubb.
Recent solo engagements have included performing at the Vienna Konzerthaus as part of soprano duo Fair Oriana, Rutter’s Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bach Choir conducted by the composer at St Paul’s Cathedral, and Sebastiani’s Matthew Passion at the Wigmore Hall with viol consort Fretwork.
Lucy enjoys performing with small choirs and vocal consorts including The Sixteen, the BBC Singers and London Voices. She has toured extensively with early music ensemble The Tallis Scholars, performing across the USA and Europe, and most recently in Taiwan, Singapore and China. She is a member of the Choir of the Brompton Oratory, directed by Patrick Russill.
Later this year Lucy will appear as a soloist with ORA Singers at the Wigmore Hall, performing unaccompanied songs for solo soprano by Jonathan Dove, with the St Alban’s Bach choir in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and in Mozart‘s Exsultate, Jubilate and Rutter’s Mass of the Children with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra in Bath Abbey, conducted by John Rutter.
Charlotte left Sherborne Girls in 2016 and went on to study Music at the University of Sheffield. After completing her undergraduate degree, she continued at Sheffield to complete an MA in Performance Studies on the recorder under the tutelage of Nigel Martin. In her final recital, she performed ‘The Cádiz Suite’, written for guitar and recorder by Sören Sieg, with the composer in attendance. Following a move to Ely in 2022, Charlotte regularly performs with Ely Sinfonia and Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra on the oboe. She is currently completing her teacher training to become a secondary school music teacher.
Amelia was a music scholar at Sherborne Girls between 2016 and 2018. She has recently completed an MPhil in English Literature at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and is working and singing in the city, studying with Ann de Renais, and continuing to sing with the choir of Trinity College. As a choral singer, she has recorded discs under the direction of Stephen Layton for Hyperion, and under Graham Walker with St. John’s Voices for Naxos, as well as touring extensively to Europe. As a soloist, Amelia has recently sung Rutter’s Magnificat and Fauré’s Requiem with Sherborne Festival Chorus and the Chameleon Arts Orchestra in the 2024 Sherborne Abbey Festival, performed Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate with the London Mozart Players in St. John’s Chapel, Cambridge, and sung the role of ‘Second Lady’ in Cambridge University Opera Society’s 2023 production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. She has also featured as a soloist in works including Handel’s Messiah, Dixit Dominus, and La Resurrezione, Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ, and Finzi’s In Terra Pax. Amelia is delighted to return to Sherborne Girls and to sing once again with John Jenkins, from whom she learned so much during her time at the School.
Olivia studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and at Leeds College of Music, where her curiosity drew her to many different styles of music such as Cuban, jazz and Indian music. Trips to India followed to study with violin maestro Kala Ramnath. Olivia is a long-established band leader, fusing her love for Indian music and jazz and with her band Unfurl has performed at most of the UK’s jazz festivals.
Photo credit: Phil Portus
Much in demand for her intoxicating, microtonallyinflected playing style, Olivia has worked with numerous luminaries across jazz and world music and has even performed with pop singers Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott! She has performed at prestigious UK venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room, The Bridgewater Hall, The Lowry, Sage Gateshead and at Glastonbury Festival. Olivia has recorded five of her own albums so far. She currently teaches classical music and jazz improvisation privately.
Susanna is a graduate of the Royal College of Music, London. Recent highlights include the launch of her curated song recital ‘Words of Women’ with pianist Claire Habbershaw at the Jersey Festival of Words and debuting as Dorinda in Liberata Collective’s sold-out run of Handel’s Orlando at Buxton International Festival and Lichfield Festival in collaboration with Ensemble Hesperi and Adrian Butterfield.
Last season she created the role of German Child in Noah Max’s critically acclaimed debut opera, A Child in Striped Pyjamas. In February 2023, she also sang Anne (Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress) for Aylesbury Opera. Other recent highlights include a summer at Longborough Festival Opera.
Susanna, alongside Olivia Doutney, is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Liberata Collective CIC. Baroque Gesture is central to their productions and their first production of Handel’s Orlando tours several major UK festivals over the 2023/24 season, supported by Arts Council England, The Fidelio Trust and The Golsoncott Foundation.
Ellie studied at Sherborne Girls from L4 to U6 and from there was accepted to study at The Yehudi Menuhin School, where she had the privilege of working alongside incredibly talented musicians. From YMS, Ellie went on to teach music in a performing arts camp in New York for a summer, where she found that her passion was working with and helping young people as well as her music. Ellie returned from America and worked in a preparatory boarding school, where she taught music to pre-prep children, as well as running her own chamber music and choral groups whilst studying for her open university degree.
Ellie is excited to be starting work at a special needs school in September where, alongside working one to one she will be helping out on the school’s exciting new project, building and developing their music department.
Ellie hopes to travel around the world and eventually become a music therapist, allowing her to combine her two passions.
We have been running our transformational Candlelight Bursaries for over a decade now, supporting girls whose challenging circumstances mean that a Sherborne Girls education can be life-changing. Over this time, we have changed lives and witnessed the inspiration of girls who live and learn alongside our Candlelight beneficiaries.
As we mark the 125th Anniversary of Sherborne Girls, we are launching a campaign to raise £1.25m to support more girls on these full bursaries. We will continue to partner with the Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation to support girls who need our help the most and will also be focusing on talent, where girls have great promise but need significant help with the fees.
Our campaign is a call to everyone who loves the School and shares our values to help us change more lives, passing on the light of a Sherborne Girls education.
For more information, please go to www.sherborne.com/support-us/candlelight-bursaries
Georgia Hewetson (Beardsell)
Yvonne Bell
Jane Bowles
Angela Bridges
Ali Pocock (Buckley)
Anne Walsh (Colquhoun)
Charlotte Ashe (de Grey)
Letitia St John Webster (Dodson)
Sarah Woods (Felix)
Lizzie King (Garton)
Kathy Bracken (Gibson)
Alix Graham (Gibson)
Thalia Eley (Grant)
Johanna Wood (Hall)
Gillian Bainbridge (Heath)
Betsey West (Hewetson)
Polly Hewetson
Florence Alexander (Hitchcock)
Rosanne Smith (Hooper)
Jocelyn Passey (Humfrey)
Alice Roberts (Hunter)
Anna Gordon (Hutt)
Elisabeth Bowyer (James)
Arabella Jennings
Michele Nicholson (Jordan)
Alison Lonsdale Davies (Lonsdale Taylor)
Jane Reekie (Nicholson)
Maggie Nightingale
Louisa Garnier (North)
Amanda O’Brien
Sam O’Brien
Scarlet O’Brien
Holly Pattenden
Nicola Price
Charmian Dadley (Quinlan)
Melanie Smallwood
Sophie Le Hardy (Smart)
Lindsey Spears
Jane Stein
Helen Fanning (Stengel)
Cathy Strachan
Katharine Martin (Stringer)
Vicky Talbot Rice
Lindsay Lamb (Taylor)
Joanna Udal
Marigold Verity
Theresa Roberts (Ward)
Willamina Wordie
Alice Young
Diana Downing (Beattie)
Amanda Claydon (Benbow)
Gill Buzzard (Blenkinsop)
Elizabeth Blandford (Carter)
Victoria Skinner (Collier)
Lucy Ferguson (Costa Duarte)
Jessica Davies
Jemima Lofts (Edwards)
Philippa Gascoigne-Pees
Kate Parsons (Gollings)
Camilla Gordon
Penelope Bratton (Hatfield)
Clare Bourne (Hedley)
Frances Drewett (Hewitt)
Sandie Higham
Jane Hopper
Judith King
Nicole Barber (Kirkman)
Lizzie Kirby (Lewis)
Fiona Mackenzie
Shauna Rudge (Matthews)
Rosemary McCormick
Katharine Meikle
Isobel Morley-Smith
Lucy Rowse (North)
Arabella St John Webster (Petersen Barreto)
Sally Whately-Smith (Pilkington)
Diana Youle (Pring)
Gillie Bryson (Scoular)
Mrinalini Somani
Jane Arnott (Stephenson)
Vivien Laughton-Smith (Thomas)
Rosalind Parr (Williams)
Mark Bridges
Joanna Cock (Carson)
Eric Jager
Christopher Knechtli
Ghislaine Fluck (Lloyd)
Neil McCormick
Philip O’Brien
Robert Prance
Chris Pring
Kevin Spears
Nicholas Wordie
Stephen Bell
Patrick Carson
Michael Cleaver
Colin Dowdeswell
Mark Greenstock
David Hall
Richard Hurford
Michael Joseph
Geoff Kenton
Martin King
Neil Kirkman
Edmund Saddington
Mark Strachan
John Thompson
Martin Walker
Stephen Wingfield Digby
And members of the Madrigal Society
