We are the future concert

The music department wishes to say a huge thank you to all of the 100+ students that took part in the concert on Thursday 21st of November. We performed to a sold out audience and were so grateful to have so many family, staff members and friends supporting us by attending the concert. The senior choir kicked off the evening with a medley from ‘Waitress’, and then Queen’s ’Somebody to Love’ with an awesome solo from Talitha Hookway in year 12. A group of year 7s from Music Makers then performed a beautiful rendition of ‘If I Die Young’ from ‘Glee’ with a beautiful solo from Olive Palestanga. Thank you to our 6th form leaders Safia Sipi and Saidhriti Siddantham for running Music Makers. The Recorder Group then wowed the audience with their versatility and comic vibe in Rogers’ ‘A Flippancy’. Ukulele Group gave a beautiful performance of ‘Shallow’ from ‘A Star is Born’ and the Cello group lulled the audience with the beautiful and relaxing Schubert’s ‘Ständchen’, and then showed their versatility with the latin vibes ‘El Choclo’. The flute choir performed the impressive Bach piece, ‘Konzert’, and the Junior Choir finished off the first half with an epic rendition of a Lion King medley with soloists Maddison Scully (Year 7) and Esmé Sabin (Year 8). The Concert Band started off the second half with ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ followed by some Christmassy numbers from The String Group. The Clarinet Group then played a smooth and relaxing piece called ‘Indian Summer’, then the orchestra gave us a swift and joyful waltz with ‘Les Patineurs’ and then performed ‘The Dambusters March’. Bella Voce finished the evening with two Christmas numbers, the first, ‘Where Riches is Everlastingly’, had a percussion trio accompanying and finally Bella Voce performed a complex and technical arrangement of the traditional carol ‘Gaudete’ with soloists Alaina Nwosa and Grace Farrell. Thank you so much to all of the peripatetic teachers involved in this concert, in particular Mrs Slade, Mrs Kirkwood and Mr Woodin. Thank you also to Mr Daniels for his technical help and the PTA for arranging the interval refreshments.

Kenyan Drumming Workshops

On Friday 22nd of November we were delighted to welcome Kato Ooko to the music department to deliver African Drumming Workshops to some of our classes. Kato has come from working in Grensteds School, near Nairobi, Kenya, and is a proud member of the Luo tribe. Kato spoke of his life growing up in his tribal village and also spoke of city life in Nairobi. Kato taught us that music is strongly linked to the people of Kenya’s identity and demonstrated various rhythms that belong to some of the 43 tribes of Kenya. The students thoroughly enjoyed hearing from Kato about his life but also enjoyed playing the rhythms of the djembes. We would like to thank Kato for visiting our school and hope to welcome him again in the future.

Pianoman Masterclass

Six of our most talented pianists from our GCSE and A Level classes were selected to play at a piano masterclass with concert pianist Richard Meyrick on Monday 25th November.

It was a wonderful occasion to hear some challenging and varied pieces in the piano repertoire. Richard’s knowledge and expertise was invaluable; where the different editions, technical skill, tone, pedalling and all manner of musicality were discussed and explored.

We hope to host similar events in the future and look forward to inviting Richard to return next year.