Music

Mandarin Intensive Study Trip to Oxford Brookes University

Year 10 Mandarin students, Raymond W (10W), Joshua L (10W) and Rohan O (10E ) travelled with Teacher of Mandarin, Mr Wu to attend a one-day intensive study trip. Five schools across Berkshire and and Oxford delivering the Mandarin Excellence Programme took part during the study trip, which included two workshops and a mini-lecture. Students were required to record a video in which they needed to use Mandarin to introduce a place in the UK with our Year 10s, creating a video about the London Eye and taking part in Chinese Folk dance.

M U S I C

House Music Competition 2022

After a two-year, pandemic enforced hiatus, the House Music Competition 2022 took place in Big School. The competition, which has traditionally been held at The Hexagon, was attended by students and teachers as all five School Houses battled it out with some exceptional group and individual performances. 1st East House 2nd County House 3rd Laud House 4th School House 5th West House

Music for All

This year, the Music Department launched instrumental lessons offering Year 7 students the opportunity to take part in 6-12 weeks of free music lessons in February in order to broaden our student experiences of musical performance and skills.

We are grateful to Head of Music, Mr O Griffin, whose energy and endeavour to create this opportunity benefited budding musicians and a passion for learning a musical instrument. We sincerely thank our donors who enabled this opportunity.

Asad A (12FEH) wins Berkshire Young Musician of the Year 2022 in the 1618 category

The Berkshire Young Musician of the Year competition is run by Berkshire Maestros, in partnership with Windsor Festival and Bradfield College. This year, Piano and Guitar players were also invited to showcase their talent and win prizes alongside others of a similar age. This competition is open to young players of piano, keyboard, classical guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and bass guitar. Competitors will follow a three-stage process: Round one, semi-final and final.

"I started playing guitar in the summer holidays between Year 8 and 9. I started it just off the whim, with no real push as to why I chose the guitar but the more I played it the more in tune I became. Eventually, I decided to take lessons halfway through year 9. This was the first year that they included classical guitar in the Berkshire Maestros young musician of the year competition, so my guitar teacher asked me if I wanted to do it. Again, off the whim, I just said yes. For the first round, I had to upload a video of me playing a piece, getting through to the semi-finals I played the same piece live in front of 3 judges. Luckily, I got through to the finals in which I played a new piece infront of 60 or so people. This made me nervous, as it was the first time I had played in front of a crowd, but I put my nerves aside and sealed the winning prize for the 16-18 classical guitar category.”

It was Asad's first time playing in front of a live audience and judges, during an annual competition that sees young musicians from across Berkshire compete against one another. He competed over a three-stage process consisting of round one, a semi-final, and the final which was a live concert final taking place at The Old Court in Windsor. Music, talented musicians and live performances are thriving at the school with a recent House Music Competition, Classical Guitar Event, and much more currently being planned.