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Department Reviews

MUSIC

Immediately following last year’s Speech Day, members of College Choir, accompanied by instrumentalists, set off for a tour of Tuscany and Umbria. We sang anthems in the Duomo in Florence and in Siena’s magnificent cathedral; we gave concerts in cathedrals in Assisi, San Gimignano and Cortona. The concerts and services, all well attended by parents and local inhabitants, combined to provide an unforgettable cultural and educational experience for the girls.

This academic year has been as busy as ever for the music department. Lunchtime concerts were staged throughout the year, which were filmed and made available on the My Daughter section of the College website. Trips were organised to many diverse concerts and events designed to enrich our general provision were hosted in College. These included visits by organists’ associations, a Gamelan workshop for LC1, a trip for College oboists, a Taiko drumming concert and a drumming masterclass at the local Jazz Festival.

The Junior Concert in October gave an early platform for soloists in LC1 and LC2. In November, our busiest month of the year, College Choir staged a concert in Cheltenham’s Pump Room on Remembrance Sunday. The choir’s beautiful singing was complemented by reflective poetry, read by Olivia Crellin, and some stunning violin playing by Caroline Sharp. A few days later, we were treated to an extraordinary event in the Princess Hall. The original silent movie version of The Phantom of the Opera was projected onto a large screen whilst the remarkably talented David Briggs improvised accompanying music on our new pipe organ. A little later in the month the String and Keyboard Prizes produced many fine and memorable performances from our girls, following which, Simon Nicholls gave a Masterclass to several of our pianists and a deeply impressive recital of Scryabin piano music. November ended with a performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria and Mozart’s Requiem. This was a reincarnation of our traditional Combined Concert, and we invited parents, family and friends to join our Choral Society for a concert in the Princess Hall. Well over 100 voices were accompanied by a semi-professional orchestra comprised of music staff and senior girls.

In December, a girls’ chamber orchestra was formed to play incidental music and songs composed by Dominic Hawley in the SFC2 production of The Merchant of Venice. The Autumn term closed with the traditional service of Nine Lessons and Carols, sung by College Choir. The previous evening, we staged the Christmas Concert in the Princess Hall. Our largest annual school concert, this year saw 270 girls taking part. The mammoth concert featured the Symphonic Wind Band, Sinfonia, a piano solo by Nora Jiang, Lower College Choir, Symphony Orchestra, String Serenaders, the whole of LC2 singing together, Chamber Choir, string solos from Alexandra Tan and Miki Simpson, the Percussion Club, College Choir, a Saxophone Quintet and the Jazz Band.

Early in the Spring term we were treated to two memorable recitals, the first given by our A2 music students and the second by our music scholars in Upper College. Either side of half-term, we staged the Singing and Wind Prizes which produced some wonderful performances. The spring term ended with two outstanding events. The LC3 Musical provides an opportunity to involve the whole year group and was hugely successful and enjoyable, with soloists and chorus accompanied by an orchestra comprising girls and staff.

The annual House Music Competition was extremely uplifting with every girl in Lower and Upper College singing or playing for her House. The quality both of the singing and the accompanying bands was impressive, with congratulations to St Austin’s for winning best House overall.

At the beginning of the summer term, College Choir sang beautifully in support of the candidates being confirmed at Christchurch. The busy month of May saw our girls well-rewarded in Cheltenham’s Festival of Performing Arts, with prizes in a solo woodwind class and many prizes in the piano classes. The Leavers’ Concert was most enjoyable with SFC2 soloists ably supported by the Symphony Orchestra. The concert premiered a work for three clarinets, harp, percussion and strings composed by Gavin Sutherland, specially commissioned for this concert. The soloists were Rachel Patrick-Patel, Alexandra Symington, Louiseanne Wong, Sarah Tallett-Williams, Tiffany Yeung and Codee Woo. In addition, Denise Chow performed the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3; Cheryl Man sang a delightful set of songs entitled, A Garden of Weeds by Terence Greaves; Eloise Morse sang the coloratura aria, Chi sa qual sia by Mozart; Tara Lawrence played the Introduction, Theme and Variations in F major for Oboe and Orchestra by Hummel, and Nicola Jee was the soloist in the Romanze from Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor by Mozart. The concert was brought to a stunning conclusion with the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, performed by Caroline Sharp. A week later, the May Concert and the Summer Fête provided platforms for Sinfonia and many soloists, particularly girls from LC3 and UC4. The year was brought to a close with our traditional Summer Concert which featured the Evalines (our female barbershop quartet), solos from Chao Kowa and Tara Lawrence, a piano duet from Eugenie Ng and Alexandra Tan, alongside our principal senior ensembles, College Choir, String Serenaders, Chamber Choir, Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra.

News

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