Two minutes with two musicians

Two minutes with two musicians

Each term, we’ll be asking two of our pupils to take two minutes to share what they love most about their instrument, their favourite music and composers, and their musical highlights so far…

Neil (S6) from Argyll, Scotland I study jazz piano, and have been playing for 11 years. I love how versatile and adaptable it can be in a jazz context and I love the huge range of colour and expression it can create. ‘Jazz standards’ are a big part of what I play so they are always good fun. Also more modern/abstract tunes can be very challenging and pretty inspiring to explore. I do love Bill Evans’ writing. Although Brad Mehldau, Keith Jarrett, Steve Reich and Wayne Shorter are also top favourites. My highlight so far has been going on tour with NYOS Jazz across Scotland, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland – a great bunch

Yonina (S4) from Frankfurt, Germany I play the piano and I sing. I’ve been playing the piano for almost 12 years and I started singing a few months before I came to the School. I love expressing my feelings with the piano and finding something in between telling my story, my interpretation and the composer’s interpretation. And I love that I can sing but also act at the same time, because I have to show a lot of emotion and understanding. One of my favourite pieces for piano is Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso, op. 14: I, it has some slow parts with beautiful melodies but the piece is still technically very demanding and you can learn a lot from it. My favourite composer is Mendelssohn. The highlight of my playing career was preparing for the audition at St Mary’s Music School… and then being told that I’d got in.

https://www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/