Art showcase 2021/2022

After two years of Covidrelated disruptions, we were thrilled to return to a full programme of concerts, shows and events into which our exceptionally talented music scholars eagerly threw themselves. Here are just a few of the musical highlights from the year.

House Song

All the Upper School pupils took part in House Song 2021 and there were some top quality performances, a few dramatic moments and a great deal of good-natured fun. The standard in the Part Song competition was high and the hushed atmosphere in Chapel was testament to the quality of performances. In the unison competition we particularly enjoyed the sing-along numbers between each House, as well as the antics of one or two Houses. The adjudicators praised the overall standard of performance and commitment, awarding the Part Song to Oakeley’s and the Unison to The South Town for a slightly raucous but fun rendition of Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home).

Autumn and Christmas Concerts

Two fantastic large-scale concerts at the end of the 2021 Michaelmas Term saw the return of live big-ensemble music for the first time since March 2020. Opening the Autumn

Concert with Eine Kleine Yiddishe Ragmusik, the Concert Wind Band combined the lively syncopations of Scott Joplin with the folk song of Jewish klezmer.

After music from eight other ensembles (featuring Boyce to Brahms), the 60-piece orchestra firstly paid homage to the Argentine tango-composer Astor Piazzolla, marking the centenary of his birth in 1921 with a new orchestration of his achingly beautiful Milonga del Angel. They concluded with the Mexican composer Márquez’s fiery Danzón No. 2, beloved of the world famous Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra.