Music

Only three weeks later, nine groups returned to entertain the whole school in the Christmas Concert on 8th December, the final night of term. Along with well known seasonal favourites from the Cello Ensemble, Chamber Choir, and Soul Bands, new arrangements were heard of Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze for classical guitar and strings; Christmas Time Is Here for a jazz quintet of voice, violin, bass, keys, and drums; and White Christmas inspired by the violin virtuoso Heifetz’s arrangement, adapted for the combined forces of solo violin, the close harmony barbershop group the ‘Cliftones’, and the Orchestra. A wonderful way to end the term – well done to all involved.

Jo Cooper Concert

A thrilling evening in Chapel in late March saw a large audience enjoy performances of a wide variety of music accompanying film clips on a big screen. We opened with Holst’s Mars from The Planets, conducted by Benson Zhou, who not only produced a most exciting rendition, but directed entirely from memory! We had a number of very high quality smaller groups, including the Flute Ensemble with the theme from the 1959 film A Summer Place arranged by sax teacher Mr Miles, Pirates of the Caribbean from the Brass Ensemble, and an arrangement of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah from the Guitar Ensemble. The Oboe Quartet of Ella Robson, Sophie Chung,

Justin Chan and Yan Lee dazzled with a performance of an Allegro from Johann Baptist Vanhal, and Naomi Chung impressed us all with a J.S. Bach keyboard concerto movement accompanied by the String Ensemble.

On the lighter side, we had a superb rendition of When Somebody Loved Me from Toy Story 2 by the Cliftones; the Cello Ensemble gave us an accomplished and entertaining version of the Ghostbusters theme and the Sax Ensemble gave us Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody We ended with a sensational medley from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, played by the Concert Band – a fitting end to a superb evening.

Kadoorie Cup and Music in the Crypt

Both senior and junior rounds of the Kadoorie Cup Competition were wonderful evenings of accomplished performances. The junior competition was a really tough decision for adjudicator Anri Adachi, but special mention goes to Rachel Yuan and Runa Haruki for winning the instrumental and vocal awards respectively.

The Senior Vocal Kadoorie Cup competition saw music from Brahms’ Feldeinsamkeit to the Welsh song Calon Lân, while the Instrumental Round ranged from Dvořák’s Violin Romance to the drum solo from Black Sabbath’s War Pigs! Well done to Naomi

Chung and Nick Przemioslo for their performances of Liszt’s Liebestraum and Sinatra’s My Way, which were awarded the top prizes of the evening! Meanwhile ‘Music in the Crypt’ later in the month saw pop, rock, karaoke and indie groups gathering to perform numbers by Carly Rae Jepsen, Fleetwood Mac, and Hozier amongst many others.

Tuesday Arts Club

The Summer Term saw the introduction of an exciting new series of concerts and events featuring visiting artists and industry professionals. Events included a violin masterclass with the highly acclaimed Liv-Marie Kodurand; an actionpacked demonstration/lecture on the rich history of analogue recording and technology by BBC sound engineer Allen Harris; and a recital of music for oboe, cor anglais and bassoon to inspire our double reed players from Prep School upward.

The final event on 21st June saw a Chapel packed with pupils, music students and guests from Bristol and beyond, who were treated to a virtuosic display of pianist prowess. Performing on the new Fazioli grand piano, the audience enjoyed the complete Op.10 Chopin Études, Prokofiev’s 3rd Sonata and Rachmaninov’s transcription of Bach’s E major Partita, performed by visiting artist Luke Jones, 1st prize winner in several European international piano competitions and Gold Medal Winner of the Royal Northern College of Music. The series will continue next academic year, so follow Clifton College Music Department Twitter for updates on all our new events brochures: @ccolmusic

Commemoration Concert

Highlights of the musical celebrations for this final Friday in May evening concert included: Amelia Campbell as vocal soloist in a new arrangement with strings of Adele’s All I Ask; the Upper Sixth graduating members of Jazz Workshop in their version of Pee Wee Ellis’s The Chicken; the Chamber Choir in Stanford’s Bluebird, with Poppy Crowther; and Cynthia Erivo’s Stand Up, fronted by Monique Konje. In June, the musical year concluded with the Summer Serenade at the Arts Evening (see p.35 for details). Well done to all involved with music this year.

Daniel Robson Director of Music