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NEWSLETTER Issue 3
The ‘Unmissably Brilliant’ Harry Smith Concert
A fitting tribute to remember Harry
O
ver the summer we were all
stunned by the tragic news of
Harry’s death. Harry played a very
large part in the musical life of the
school, and it seemed a fitting tribute
from the students to remember Harry
with a celebration of the one thing he
loved the most.
The Sixth Form Charity Committee
decided the best way forward was to
stage a concert to involve as many
performances as we could, raising
as much money as we could for the
charity chosen by Harry’s parents
– Papyrus.
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Other notable performances included
Harry’s house, Gravesend performing
their rendition of Superstition by Stevie
Wonder. The other members of Harry’s
AS Music group were all represented;
Priscilla Ho playing River Flows in You
beautifully on Piano, Matt Wickes
played a Saxophone duet with Bob
Webb, Ben Ellis performed his composition ‘Tumbling Pianos’ and Oliver
Joseph sang Empty Chairs at Empty
Tables from Les Miserables.
piece to a soundtrack created by Harry.
Huge congratulations should go to
Louise Irvine, Alex Coppola, Sam
Hopkins and Henry Mooney to name
but a few of the committee who
worked tirelessly to make the event
such a success. We were delighted
that so many of Harry’s family and
friends joined us in the audience. The
final total of over £5,125.94 was an
outstanding amount raised for Papyrus
and will surely just be the start of an
even bigger fundraising campaign over
the course of the year.
The second half opened with a devised
drama piece based on Harry’s YouTube
Channel NLP Minecraft. Louise Irvine,
Will Sidi, Sam Hopkins and Alex
Coppola created a visually stimulating
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If you would like to donate please
visit http://www.justgiving.com/
HenryMooney/.
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There was an eclectic mix of musical
items performed by those that were
close to Harry and his family. The
emotional highpoint of the evening
was undoubtably the Show Choir
singing ‘No-one But You’ by Queen,
with a guest appearance by musical
NOVEMBER 2013
theatre star Emma Barton. Emma had
been a judge in the previous evening’s
Inter-House Music and was so moved
by Harry’s story that she offered to stay
and perform.
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Inter-House Music Competiton
Wednesday 23rd October was taken over by
our Inter-House Music competition. All Houses
had been practising hard since the beginning
of term and all of their hard work paid off!
Each House had a 15 minute rehearsal slot
during the day to practise in the gym, where
the competition took place. It was clear from
the outset that the standard this year was going to be extremely high.
At 3.45pm the competition began; the excitement and nervous energy in the
room was clearly apparent.
Now to introduce our judges - Mr
Ben Heathcote (a local musician
and actor who has performed all
over the world with legends such
as Andrew Lloyd-Weber and Brian
May); Ms Emma Barton (A West
End performer whose credits include Chicago and Annie, but who
is most popularly known for her
role as Honey Mitchell in Eastenders) and finally; Mr Wadey (A
proudly Cornish man and a teacher
at Gordon’s school since 2000 who
received the loudest round of applause of all!)
Buckingham House opened the
event with the highly sophisticated ‘Tumbling
Pianos’, a piece written by Ben Ellis for his
GCSE composition. This minimalist style music, performed on 3 Pianos (Ben Ellis, Philip
O’Connor and Alex Coppola) and Flute (Matt
Wickes), showed off the technical abilities of
the group well and set the high standard for
the event.
Windsor House were second to perform with
Paloma Faith’s ‘New York’. The girls gave an
impeccable performance with fabulous solos
from Ellen Robinson and Sophie Chan as well
as some clear and well-thought out harmonies. A confident and highly impressive performance!
some lovely vocal harmonies as well as solos
from a large proportion of the group; Eloise
Young added to the piece’s atmosphere with
her lovely Violin tone.
proach, with Justin Timberlake’s ‘Mirrors’. The
group was well-organised by Daniela Beck and
accompanied by Wai Yan on Piano; there were
lovely solos from Sophie Guida and Maddie
Howell, showing off the range of their voices
Balmoral House gave us the only medley of with some intricate melody lines.
the afternoon moving seamlessly from Frank
Sinatra’s ‘That’s Life’ to ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ Khartoum closed the show with a flawless
by Queen. Guitarists Rory Cracroft, Louis Mel- ‘Radioactive’ by Imagine Dragons. Ollie Jolor and Ollie Strange, along with saxophon- seph and Colin Hutchings added a moment
ists Hugo Hughes and Jack Bass and violinist of comedy to the song by playing on the line
Noah Sempala gave the piece a more interest- ‘I’m breathing in the chemicals’; the audience
ing arrangement; Henry Burnell were in stitches! Comedy aside, the musicality
delivered a fabulous Guitar solo and confidence shown by the Khartoum musiwhilst Michael Broom took the cians was outstanding.
lead and wowed the audience
with his fabulous skills on piano With all Houses having performed, the judges
and vocals.
were whisked away to make their decision
leaving the contestants excitedly waiting, feelChina House gave us another ing proud of their performances.
large group performance, with
‘Young Volcanoes’ by Fall Out After a short break, the judges returned with a
Boy. Accompanied by Natalie few words for all the participants. The judges
Dear on Guitar, Jessica Brimfield were clearly impressed and overwhelmed by
and Teresa Stander kick started the talent that all the students had shown;
the piece with great solos as their words of advice were a clear ‘Keep it up,
well as some successful harmo- whatever you’re doing, keep it up!’
nies later on. It was great to hear
some of our new Year 7s take on Mr Moss then announced the results in rethe instrumental – Maisy Ellis verse order, with the audience sitting on the
and Emily Garner on Violin and edge of their seats. Third place went to… KensTia Jasani on Flute.
ington House – the huge cheer from the girls
themselves showed how pleased they were
Gravesend then took the audience in a new to gain a position this year! In second place...
musical direction with their performance of Windsor House – even more cheering! And
‘Superstition’. With Will Hopkins on vocals, first place in the Inter-House music competiHenry Gray on Saxophone and Cody Moss on tion goes to… Khartoum!
piano they certainly captured the essence of a
Stevie Wonder performance!
Congratulations and a huge well-done to all
involved!
Augusta House also took a large group ap-
Sandringham House was next up and certainly
stole the show with their costumes! Looking
the part, they performed ‘Let Me Go’ by Maverick Sabre. Their creative use of percussion
instruments and their audience interaction
was great as they had the whole crowd clapping along!
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Kensington House was the first of our larger
groups, with the maximum number of performers for One Republic’s ‘Counting Stars’.
This well-co-ordinated performance showed
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The End of the Summer Term...
Tringham Preschool
Towards the end of the summer term, we were delighted to invite Tringham Preschool to Gordon's to
help support their 'music' focus for the month. The three and four year olds made their way across
the Recreation Ground to Gordon's for the session and were greeted by some very keen Gordon's
musicians. Max Roffey kept everyone in check by issuing bugle calls for the starts and ends of sessions,
whilst string players Eloise Young, Yasmin Taylor and Will Hopkins gave some lovely performances and
Will even tried to squeeze his Cello under his chin to demonstrate the differences in size between a
Cello and a Violin!
The central part of the session consisted of making percussion instruments. We did our bit for 'reduce,
reuse, recycle' by using empty plastic bottles donated by Gordon's staff and filling them with rice,
lentils or pasta. Each child decorated their shaker with personalised stickers and then we were ready
to go. Next our woodwind players Matt Wickes, Josh Papworth, Bertie Lyhne-Gold, Zara Cracroft and
Matilda Bradford played for the group, accompanied by our handmade percussion instruments.
Finally Mrs Heathcote led the group in some singing and the Gordon's students joined in most
enthusiastically with 'The Wheels on the Bus' and ' The Animal Fayre'. The morning was rounded
off by a well-earned drink and biscuit before the children headed back across the field shaking their
instruments for all to hear!
Caledonian Club
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West End Fete
We were privileged to be invited to London to perform at the Caledonian Club
Summer Ball in June this year. The Caledonian Club, founded in 1891, is a
private members’ Club situated in the heart of Belgravia, whose members are
either Scottish or have a close association with Scotland. After a hectic journey
through Friday night rush-hour traffic, we arrived in good time to get changed in
the very exclusive library, complete with hidden doorways and to warm up with
the Club's resident Piper, Ian King. Our job was to play outside the club for those
members going to the Ball and it was really quite an unusual event marching up
and down the pavement! Once dinner was announced we moved upstairs to
pipe the guests through to dinner.
Yet again, the sun shone for us on the day of the West
End Fete. Gordon's Pipes and Drums were to lead
the procession, and all the local community groups
had put enormous amounts of effort into the floats
and decorations. All the players did extremely well
given the long walk around the village and the arena
performance too. A big congratulations to Georgie
Eccleshall for her first solo performance on the bass
drum.
Having convinced Mr McCready that busking in central London could be saved
for another day, we arrived home in good time ready for another busy day
playing at West End Fete…
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Gordon’s Slow March
Gordonian, Stephen Lines
(1962-1965), has such good
memories of playing in the
band on Sunday parades that
48 years after leaving Gordon’s he decided to write a
slow march for the school. Indeed that’s exactly what he’s
done and the school concert
band will begin rehearsing
‘Gordon’s Slow March’ after the summer break. The
march is dedicated to the
staff and students of the
school and includes a slight
Caledonian flavour together
with passing references to
’Wings’ – the quick march
of the Royal Engineers; the
Corps to which General Gordon famously belonged.
After leaving the school Stephen joined the Army as a
musician. He attended the
Royal Military School of Music (Kneller Hall) during 196768 where he studied french
horn under Alf Cursue. Alf
was a specialist 4th horn
player who was a member of
‘God’s Own Quartet’ which
included Dennis and Aubrey
Brain. On completion of
the course Stephen was appointed principal horn of the
regimental Band of the 2nd
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Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment. He returned to Kneller
Hall during 1975-1978 and,
having passed his Bandmastership examinations, was
appointed Bandmaster of
1st Battalion Royal Anglian
Regiment. Just 6-years later,
because Army music at that
time was suffering drastic
cuts due to a Strategic Defence Review, he decided to
take voluntary redundancy.
Stephen subsequently retrained and was appointed a
member of the Directing Staff
at the British Police Staff College, Bramshill where he became responsible for running
Multi-Media Simulated Operations Training for senior police officers from across the
world in ‘Critical DecisionMaking Under Stress’.
Whilst associated with the
Police he studied for a Masters Degree in Police and
Criminal Justice Studies and
an Honours Degree in Psychology. Subsequently he
was recruited by the Farnborough-based Defence Evaluation Research Agency - now
called QinetiQ - where he
worked as a senior consultant within the Centre for Human Sciences.
Beating the Retreat
The school Pipes and Drums, along with the band of the Royal Logistic
Corps played at a Beating Retreat ceremony held at Gordon's School
on behalf of the Army Benevolent Fund on Friday 21st June 2013. This
was the first time that both bands had played together, and it gave us
the rare chance to work with such a professional group of musicians
who were in the same line of business as us.
The Pipes and Drums did a separate marching display and played a
new medley of tunes of varying tempo. The ceremony culminated in
the finale with a combined piece known as Highland Cathedral.
Preparation for the day did not allow a great deal of rehearsal time
and occuring at the height of the exam season, attendance by key
band members was at a premium, but I am extremely happy to report
that we did an excellent job and the Director Music from the RLC Band
was, as he put it, "...unbelievably surprised at the professionalism and
musical ability of the school Pipes and Drums".
Stephen is semi-retired but,
despite this, he still composes music virtually full time.
He writes in various genres
but sees himself in future
concentrating on orchestral
music and writing for the
french horn – he has recently
published his second horn
concerto. When not composing he can be found playing
golf at Hartley Wintney Golf
Club.
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Expressive Arts Evening
We were blessed with some very fine weather on the evening of the Expressive Arts Evening. Just as well really, as two out of the three
performances took place outside! The evening kicked off with the jazz ensemble, led by Jaz Moss performing a set outside the library.
Inside the library a fine display of GCSE and A Level art was on show, and outside the catering team had done a superb job on the canapés.
The evening then moved to the amphitheatre, where Mr Graham's drama group performed some excerpts from Romeo and Juliet.
Finally, the audience moved into the Recreation Hall to hear a variety of musical items. The Concert band were in fine form, playing
Skyfall from the latest Bond film and Hey Jude. Sophie Guida and Natasha Gerrard led the Show Choir in a stirring rendition of 'No-one
but You' by Queen, followed by a very well-rehearsed version of 'Quiet' from the musical Matilda performed by Poppy Colloff and Erin
King. Also in fine form were the string group, who despite missing some of their key GCSE and Sixth Form players due to exams, gave a
fine performance of Karl Jenkins's Palladio.
Kingston Flag Raising
Monday 24th June 2013 saw the band heading off to County Hall, Kingston to take part in the start of the Armed Forces Week celebrations on behalf of Surrey County. This is the second time we have been invited to this event and the band play in front of local dignitaries
and representatives of the Armed Forces. It is a very moving and poignant ceremony but also highlights the great work that the men and
women of all three services do in the interests of us all.
We are now looking forward to getting back into our newly refurbished band room and preparing for the new school year.
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New Musical Ventures...
London Academy of Music and Drama (LAMDA)
The Music Department is delighted to have started a new venture into LAMDA examinations. The London Academy of Music and Drama
offer qualifications in public speaking, acting prose and poetry and debating, amongst others. These lessons are being offered to all year
groups on the same basis and at the same cost as other instrumental lessons. Sixth Form students will also benefit from receiving a six
week course during their open study sessions with the opportunity to take this further in a period 7 activity if they so wish.
Mrs Heathcote, our LAMDA teacher writes.... "What I love about the LAMDA process is that there is an opportunity to be judged on work
you have prepared, to get feedback and to learn how to improve for the next exam. As you go through the grades, there is a great sense
of accomplishment and a feeling that your hard work is being translated into something tangible. Whether or not the student is the next
Daniel Radcliffe, Kate Winslet or Danny Boyle the students at Gordon's have the opportunity to express themselves and improve their selfesteem working in pairs or on their own. For the Sixth Form Public Speaking students they are already taking every opportunity available
to put their presentation skills into practice... preparing them for life in the outside world!”
A Musical Welcome to New Students
New students at Gordon’s had a musical slant to their first day of term this year when they attended the instrumental demonstration.
There was a slight difference this year to previous years as students were able to have a go on many of the instruments we have on offer
at Gordon’s. With the help of our visiting instrumental staff, different ‘stations’ were set up around the Recreation Hall; each station had
a different instrument and students had a short taster on a variety of orchestral instruments as well as the Guitar, Drum-Kit and a mini
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The event sparked great interest and enjoyment and many new students, Year 7s in particular have now begun instrumental and vocal
lessons at Gordon’s. New students have also shown enthusiasm for our extra-curricular ensembles which started rehearsals this week.
The Show Choir had a great turn out at its first rehearsal and we’ve welcomed new students into Concert Band and Under the Arches
Band, as well as String Group and Woodwind Ensemble.
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If you would like any more information about musical opportunities at Gordon’s please get in touch.
NOVEMBER 2013
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Gordon’s Musicians Perform in School…
Lunch-Time Concerts
Our lunch-time concerts got off to a flying
start on Wednesday 18th September 2013
with several superb performances. These
concerts are very informal and aim to give
students the chance to perform in front of
a small audience in a relaxed atmosphere.
Kiran Evetts opened the proceedings and got
the chapel rocking with his electric Guitar
performance! Rebecca Luke performed Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’ on Flute and was followed by Victoria Howard singing ‘Mr Snow’
from Carousel. Erin King produced another
great performance of ‘Quiet’ from Matilda
before Cody Moss concluded the concert
with a flawless and characterful version of
‘Autumn Leaves’ played on Trumpet. The audience enthusiastically showed their appreciation for all performances!
Our second lunch time concert of the term
saw some of our more seasoned performers,
but this time alongside some new faces. Katie Beet gave a superb performance of ‘Part
of Your World’ from The Little Mermaid; this
gave Katie the chance to test out the waters
before singing this piece at Woking Music
Festival later this term. Sophie Guida also
gave her Woking Music Festival entry a try
out in front of a smaller yet just as appreciative audience, with ‘What it Means to be a
Friend’. Sophie Armitt teamed up with Freya
Anning to perform an Adele favourite for the
first time; their voices certainly complimenting each other well. Ben Whatmore, one of
our new Year 7s, performed one of his Grade
2 recorder pieces, and highly accurately he
did this too! Andrew Milne, another of our
new Year 7s, gave us a jazzy and enjoyable
rendition of one of his Grade 4 exam pieces
on Trumpet. Benjamin Cave also performed
on Trumpet, sharing one of his Grade 5 pieces with rousing success.
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Performance at the Year 7 Information Evening
Concert Band and Soloists entertained parents and students at the Year 7 Information Evening on Monday 16th September. With only a
short rehearsal time since the start of the year, Concert Band brushed up two previous favourite numbers from the summer term, Skyfall
and Hey Jude. Both pieces were performed well and showed off our developing Brass section nicely! In between these items, Rebecca
Luke gave a sprightly rendition of ‘Circus Pony’ on Flute, and Erin King and Poppy Colloff brought a touch of drama to the evening with a
captivating performance of ‘Quiet’ from Matilda.
Informal Concert
Our first Informal Concert of the year was held during the
evening of Wednesday 16th October 2013 in the Recreation
Hall. There were 19 students performing in total, with 9 of
these performing for the first time. Vocalists and Instrumentalists of all styles and year groups
were well represented.
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Hannah Hailu started the evening with a wonderful performance of Shostakovich’s Waltz
on Violin, as a duet with Mrs Darymple. Michael Broom maintained this high standard of
string playing later in the evening with his extremely musical performance of ‘Debussy’s La
Fille aux Cheveux de Lin’.
Katie Beet was the first of our vocalists, producing a stunning performance ‘Part of Your World’;
Grace Cottage followed with a lively and truly
entertaining performance of ‘Good Morning Baltimore’. Other vocalists of the evening included
Emily Bell with a lovely performance of ‘Castle on
a Cloud’ from Les Miserables and Erin King performed ‘Play
with your Food’ from Honk capturing the Cat character perfectly! Beth Anning performed the heart-wrenching ‘Easy
Terms’ from Blood Brothers, with the dialogue performed by
Yasmine Sheehan and Lou-Lou Mattinson.
Freddie Tilbrook then took the audience in a different musical direction with Noel Gallagher’s ‘If I had a Gun’, before
Helena Luke (Year 8) took us ‘back to Bach’ with a note perfect rendition on Flute of Bach’s Rondeau.
Annie Rose was the first of our GCSE musicians, performing ‘Rachel and the Boys’ on Alto Saxophone, before being
joined by Lauren Kemp for a Saxophone duet of ‘Imagine’.
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Other GCSE musicians included Rhaea Lee, performing one of her own songs and Lawrence
Semper-White performing the beautiful ‘Divenire’ by Einaudi. Victoria Howard produced
a lovely, sincere performance of ‘Evergreen’
by Barbara Streisand before Sophie Chan
wowed the audience with her performance
of the 1st Movement from Mozart’s Piano
Sonata in D.
Cody Moss was the first of three trumpeters of the evening, showing off his
improvisation skills beautifully with the
jazz standard ‘Stella by Starlight’. Benjamin
Cave and Andrew Milne performed later in the evening with
their Trumpet exam pieces, both of which had a slight Bluesy
twist!
Kiran Evetts closed the evening, after a swift technical set up,
with a Muddy Waters favourite on electric guitar.
The evening was helped to flow smoothly with well-rehearsed introductions from some of our 6th-form LAMDA
students, Alex Coppola, Charlie Clemmow and Aidan Perry.
Music is becoming a larger feature of assemblies this year. Kiran Evetts, after his success in the lunch time concert, rocked the Chapel
for a full week during September with different performances from Rock Legends including Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Cody Moss
also played in assemblies during October, performing different jazz standards on Trumpet, with his own improvised interpretations.
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Exam Congratulations
Congratulations to Bene Robinson on passing his Grade V Acoustic Guitar Exam.
NOVEMBER 2013
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… And Outside of School
Songs of Praise
On the evening of Sunday 29th
September, twelve lower school
singers joined Mrs Brazendale
and the choirs of Chobham St
Lawrence School and CoworthFlexlands at a Songs of Praise
service in St Lawrence Church
to launch the Chobham Music
Festival. The hour long service
included some well-known hymns
and the congregation joined in
with some hearty singing. The
school singers joined together
to perform two hymns: ‘Think
of a World’ and ‘Shine Jesus
Shine’, which were both very
well received. Thanks to all the
parents who transported pupils
to and fro and to all the new
singers who have got involved so
eagerly.
Chobham Schools’ Prom
On Friday 4th October 2013, as part of
the Chobham Music Festival, 12 student
singers and a small selection of the Pipes
and Drums band went down to St Lawrence
Church to perform alongside local primary
schools in front of each other as well as
parents and relatives.
The Pipes and Drums gave a majestic
opening to the morning by playing as
students from the primary schools entered
the church. The singers then started off
the official concert with an emotional
performance of Queen’s ‘No-one But You
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(Only the Good Die Young)’, with Natasha
Gerrard and Victoria Howard taking on
some solos in the opening before Sophie
Guida took on the main solo part. Erin King
and Poppy Colloff then reprised their duet
of ‘Quiet’ from Matilda; just as enjoyable
and entertaining as when first heard! The
drummers marched through the church
later in the concert, and entertained
everyone with the highly skilled ‘Drummers
Meeting’, to a rapturous round of applause.
Valley End Infants, Coworth-Flexlands and
St Lawrence Cof E Primary School all gave
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very enjoyable performances, especially
with homemade kites being waved during
‘Let’s Go Fly a Kite’ from Mary Poppins!
The concert concluded with a joint
performance (although only ever separately
rehearsed!) of ‘When I Grow Up’ from
Matilda. Gordon’s students (Beth Anning,
Katie Beet, Poppy Colloff, Anna Dunbar and
Erin King) took some solos in the opening,
before being joined by all the primary
school students. It certainly was a fabulous
way to end a lovely morning’s concert!
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Chobham Schools Prom Samba Workshop
As part of the Chobham Schools’ Prom, Gordon’s students were
invited to take part in a Samba workshop. Mrs Brazendale and
Mrs Blaine took two mini-buses of our drummers, both from
the Pipes and Drums Band as well as some of our Drum-Kit students.
We learnt about the different Samba instruments and how
they should be played, as well as some of the typical Samba
rhythms. Some of them were a lot more complicated than they
first appeared! We finished with a small performance of everything we’d learnt; an enjoyable morning was had by all!
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Gordon’s School Drummers play at the launch of BBC Children in Need 2013
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The Gordon School Drummers were the opening act at the event
to launch the BBC’s ‘Children in Need 2013’ called ‘An Evening with
the Stars’.
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They gave a dazzling performance with UV lighting and fluorescent
drumsticks to an audience of 1,000 invited dinner guests at the
Battersea Evolve venue.
Following the afternoon dress rehearsal, the Band was delighted
to watch the Street Dance Group ‘Ruff Diamond’ go through their
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‘...they gave a dazzling
performance’
paces with back flips and somersaults.
The Drummers gave their usual professional and polished performance at the opening of the event. They then watched ‘Ruff
Diamond’ perform and listened to Terry Wogan’s opening speech.
Just before leaving, the band were thrilled when the compere Rick
Edwards (former T4 presenter) came out to the coach to personally thank them and have some photos taken with the Band. More
information on the event can be seen by typing ‘BBC Children in
Need an Evening with the Stars’ into Google.
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Woking Music Festival
Katie Beet was the first of our students to attend Woking Music
Festival on Thursday 7th November, and what a start it was!
Katie performed Christina Aguilera’s ‘Beautiful’ in the Vocal Pop/
Jazz class at the United Reform Church. Although a small class,
there was some very tough competition; all competitors performed quite complex pieces very well. After tensely waiting to
hear results, the adjudicator gave all competitors very positive
feedback; he then awarded Katie join first place!
Friday 8th November was a busy night of soloists and duets in
the vocal classes. Katie Beet, Grace Cottage and Erin King all
performed in the under 13 years Musical Theatre class, with
Sophie Guida singing
in the under 15 years
Musical Theatre class.
Katie sang a sincere and
heartfelt rendition of
Part of Your World from
‘The Little Mermaid’;
Grace became an
audience captivating
1950s leading lady for
Good Morning Baltimore from ‘Hairspray’;
Erin embodied the cat
from the show ‘Honk’
perfectly for Play with
Your Food’. Sophie gave
another sincere and
profound performance
with What it Means to be a Friend. Erin King then came back to
the stage, this time with Poppy Colloff to perform in the Under
19 years Vocal Duet class, with Quiet from Matilda. All our
students received ‘commended’ performances; Grace Cottage
achieved 2nd place, as did Erin King and Poppy Colloff for their
duet!
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Our instrumentalists were also represented at the festival. Eloise
Young and Hannah Hailu performed in the Under 15s Duo class
at Christchurch. They were extremely well rehearsed on their
chosen piece, ‘Waltz’ from Five Pieces for Violins and Piano by
Dimitri Shostakovich. The adjudicator recognised their strong
sense of ensemble
and the musicality with which they
performed, giving
them a highly ‘commended’ for their
performance and
first place!
Erin King took
advantage of the
drama classes at the
festival and performed in the Solo
Acting 10-12 years
class. She performed
The Cheshire Cat
monologue from
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis, achieving a distinction from the
adjudicator and first place!
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Cody Moss represented us in two piano classes – Jazz/Pop Intermediate and Jazz Improvisation playing Misty by Erroll Garner in
the first class and Ladybird by Tadd Dameron in the second. His
performances were simply superb; the adjudicator commented
on how ‘at home’ Cody appeared, both on stage as well as
with his chosen style of music. Cody won both his classes with
distinction!
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Our vocal entries at the festival finished with Show Choir performing at the H. G. Wells Centre on Tuesday 12th November.
They performed four pieces in total; I See the Light and Make
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Me a Light for the Under 13 years School Choirs class and NoOne But You and Angel’s Carol for the Under 15 years. All the
girls performed extremely well; the adjudicator commented
positively on things that the choir had been trying hard to put
into practice such as keeping their focus during the solos and
lovely legato phrasing. The feedback was lovely to hear and all
the students were incredibly supportive of each other as well
as the other schools competing. Being awarded ‘highly commended’ in both classes, as well as 2nd place was the icing on
the cake; a great evening was had by all!
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During November, several Gordon’s students were entered into Woking Music Festival, and all performed
extremely well!
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Gordon’s students gain musical inspiration from hearing others:
Ukulele Orchestra
Following a very successful trip to the Menuhin School in February, we were pleased to be able
to book tickets to another of their showcase concerts in September. Students at the Menuhin
School are prodigiously talented musicians, and can start attending the school from the age of
7. The school only has 76 students, so it was fascinating for Gordon's students to compare and
contrast the different school experiences.
The first performer was 11 year old Coco Tomita who gave a sprightly rendition of Fiocco's Allegro, playing with a Barqoue bow. Whilst this performance was in itself very impressive, it was
soon superseded by some truly awe-inspiring playing by 16 year old Sao Soulez Lariviere playing
Il Palpiti by Paganini and his 17 year old sister Cosima playing Wieniawski's Fantasie brilliante on
themes from Gounod's Faust.
We all concluded that it was an inspirational evening of music making. It was lovely to be able
to be accompanied on the trip by our string teacher Susie Dalrymple and to have some wellestablished string players and also a new year 7 pupil on the minibus too. We hope to continue
our relationship with the Menuhin School over this academic year.
Menuhin School Composition Workshop
On a beautiful autumnal day, four intrepid composers (Eloise Young - Yr 10, Theo Hughes and
Rebecca Luke - Yr 11 and Matthew Wickes - Yr 13) set off to the Menuhin School in Cobham to
take part in a composing workshop. This was the introductory session of what will become a
three part series, where the pupils learn skills in composition, get to try out ideas and make a
final recording of their piece.
The workshop was led by Head of Composition, John Cooney. He guided the pupils through
the very basic of composition, reminding them how inspiration for composition can come from
many places; people, the natural world, other geographical locations and so on. We spent some
time exploring the ways of developing musical material so that the pupils had some ideas to use
once they returned to the classroom.
After a short break, a string quartet of students from the Menuhin School played two movements from the Benjamin Britten String Quartet No. 3. It was a very technical piece and John
guided us through it, breaking down sections so that we could hear the various string techniques
such as pizzicato and tremolo.
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Feeling inspired, it was time for lunch. Immediately after we were invited
to the lunchtime concert at the Menuhin Hall, where students from the
school played pieces they are preparing for public performance. Three
out of the four Gordon's students had not been to the Menuhin School
before, and it was fair to say that they were blown away by the virtuosity of the playing from students who, in many cases, were younger than
themselves.
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On Friday 20th September, 12
students went to see the Ukulele
Orchestra of Great Britain. There
was a mix of excitement and apprehension amongst the group;
we’d heard rumours that they
were very good (why else would
they have ‘of Great Britain’ as
part of their name?) but did not
know what to expect! They certainly lived up to their title.
We were thoroughly entertained
with a whole variety of musical
numbers ranging from modern
favourites such as Adele to older
numbers that were unknown
to some students. The majority
of performances were popular
songs accompanied by the different sizes of ukuleles but they
did also perform some orchestral
music in the form of Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens (possibly more
widely known as the Jonathan
Creek theme tune). The anecdotes and jokes in between songs
were just as entertaining as the
pieces themselves.
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Menuhin School
The encore of the evening ended
with an outstanding mash up of
each performer’s favourite song;
the music of Handel, Sinatra, The
Fugees, Gloria Gaynor and The
Eagles was superbly and flawlessly mixed together in a jawdropping performance! We will
certainly be looking out for future
performances near West End!
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We are looking forward to going back in January to try out musical
ideas with the Menuhin students. We will return in March to make
final recordings of the piece.
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JANUARY 2013