St Richard's
A traditional Catholic co-educational boarding school
from Nursery through to Preparatory School
Music News
| The following have successfully passed
their ABRSM Practical exams CONGRATULATIONS ! | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Katy Garrett | Violin | Grade 1 | Merit |
| George Harris | Piano | Grade 1 | Merit |
| Libby Glanville | Violin | Grade 3 | Pass |
| Genevieve Bunce | Singing | Grade 4 | Pass |
| Thomas Jackson | Violin | Prep Test | |
| Maisie Clay | Violin | Prep Test | |
| Georgia Barrett | Piano | Prep Test | |
| ...and the following have been entered for exams this term GOOD LUCK ! | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ali Hawkins | Violin | Grade 4 |
| Caspian Cowan Taylor | Viola | Grade 3 |
| Louis de Rohan | French Horn | Grade 1 |
| Natasia Singleton | Piano | Grade 1 |
| Ben Humphrey | Piano | Grade 1 |
| Cecilia Roberts | Piano | Prep Test |
| Ali Hawkins | Music Theory | Grade 4 |
| Isolde Watt | Music Theory | Grade 4 |
Carol Concert - December 2011
25 years ago composer Adrian Williams wrote an anthem entitled Hail Mary. At this year’s carol concert he was able to hear it sung by his son Eugene for the first time; he opened the evening with a beautiful and serene rendition of the piece. Oliver Singleton and the choir followed and, although it was a break away from the traditional opening of Once in Royal David’s City, it set the tone and very high standard for the remainder of the evening.
The large choir comprised children from all parts of the school and included staff and John Durham’s Chamber Choir. For Director of Music Annie Bull, it was her first time taking on the role of directing and conducting the carols, handing over to John Durham for his choir to sing some of the more unusual carols – notably We’ve Been Awhile A-Wandering – a traditional Yorkshire carol which was sung with great gusto and contrasted well with the others.
Two carols sung by the full choir were particularly beautifully and dynamically well performed – The Moon Shines Bright and The Hereford Carol. I have not heard these sung by the St Richard’s Carol Choir before and it is always lovely to hear something new sung by such young voices.
25 years ago composer Adrian Williams wrote an anthem entitled Hail Mary. At this year’s carol concert he was able to hear it sung by his son Eugene for the first time; he opened the evening with a beautiful and serene rendition of the piece. Oliver Singleton and the choir followed and, although it was a break away from the traditional opening of Once in Royal David’s City, it set the tone and very high standard for the remainder of the evening.
The large choir comprised children from all parts of the school and included staff and John Durham’s Chamber Choir. For Director of Music Annie Bull, it was her first time taking on the role of directing and conducting the carols, handing over to John Durham for his choir to sing some of the more unusual carols – notably We’ve Been Awhile A-Wandering – a traditional Yorkshire carol which was sung with great gusto and contrasted well with the others.
Two carols sung by the full choir were particularly beautifully and dynamically well performed – The Moon Shines Bright and The Hereford Carol. I have not heard these sung by the St Richard’s Carol Choir before and it is always lovely to hear something new sung by such young voices.
A clarinet quartet and brass duo accompanied While Shepherds Watched and Hark the Herald respectively, the second of which reached
the greatest crescendo I have ever heard as a finale in the chapel.
The children should be very proud of their performance – not only musically but the fact that they sang 16 carols without a word of music or libretto in front of them – something not quite mastered by the staff! Their concentration on following the conductor was most impressive, especially amongst the younger members of the choir, for whom the concert must have followed several days and nights of pre-Christmas excitement.
The many and varied readings, so well executed, were a joy to listen to and we were drawn into them by the fact that the children felt confident enough to look up to the audience – a difficult art to master during public reading. I particularly enjoyed a reading from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, read by Tom Harvey who was able to inject much humour into the piece.
Although it was obviously a team effort, great credit must go to Annie Bull, John Durham and Ros Clifford (for the readings) but particularly to the children for the many hours of learning and practice throughout the term. It will be a very hard act to follow.
Sue Johns
The children should be very proud of their performance – not only musically but the fact that they sang 16 carols without a word of music or libretto in front of them – something not quite mastered by the staff! Their concentration on following the conductor was most impressive, especially amongst the younger members of the choir, for whom the concert must have followed several days and nights of pre-Christmas excitement.
The many and varied readings, so well executed, were a joy to listen to and we were drawn into them by the fact that the children felt confident enough to look up to the audience – a difficult art to master during public reading. I particularly enjoyed a reading from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, read by Tom Harvey who was able to inject much humour into the piece.
Although it was obviously a team effort, great credit must go to Annie Bull, John Durham and Ros Clifford (for the readings) but particularly to the children for the many hours of learning and practice throughout the term. It will be a very hard act to follow.
Sue Johns
Well done
Geni Bunce, Anna Skyrme
and Sam Dent
who hit the high notes earlier this week :
they have all been offered a place in the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain.
who hit the high notes earlier this week :
they have all been offered a place in the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain.
Click here for
the Music Practice Schedule
the Music Timetable of Groups
the Boarders Morning Practice Schedule
Informal Concert
- 8th November 2011
For our second, and probably last, Informal Concert this term, we gathered in the Front Hall to listen to a good mix of items. There was an excellent turnout of parents (a number of grandparents, too), which always gives a good atmosphere and so much support – I did say in my introduction, though, that if friends and relations can’t make it, then we always have a good school audience of friends and teachers. These events are designed to give the children confidence, from the initial announcing of name and piece to the performance itself.
In this second half of term, we were able to hear a number of children who started learning the piano this term.
Rory Crichard gave a splendidly authoritative Old Macdonald,
Arabella Green gave good accounts of both Mary had
a Little Lamb and Marching, and Laetitia Watt had worked hard to deliver a perfect Yankee Doodle. A little more
experienced were James Kemp with an excellent demonstration of playing ‘hands together’ in Autumn,
Lucy Marriott
in confident renditions of Boating Lake and We Three Kings, Ben Humphrey with an authoritative version of the popular
Grade 1 piece Tarantella, India Roberts in a delightful Study, and both
Georgia Barrett and Cecilia Roberts in parts
of the Prep Test syllabus, playing Jogalong and Boating respectively.
Jess Kenyon-Slaney generously played two pieces
with The Little Cossack and Unto Us a Boy is born, showing noticeable improvement since the previous Informal.
George
Harris delivered the Grade 1 Vampire Blues with splendid assurance.
The concert opened with all of Form I playing Walking in the Air on the recorder – a super performance where the children played accurately and confidently, helped by our music gap student Hugh Bortolotti. Hugh stepped into the limelight again at the end of the concert, when he conducted the Junior Brass Group in Gentle River – difficult without a warm-up, but this large group acquitted itself with aplomb.
Elsewhere we heard some promising string playing. Thomas Jackson, violin, played an atmospheric Walk on Mars with
lots of sliding up and down to harmonics, and Maisie Clay performed a beautifully tuned Go Tell Aunt Rhody (her own
choice piece for her Prep Test later this term). Libby Glanville, violin, let us hear one of her Grade 3 pieces, The
Two Grenadiers, played with excellent ‘slurred staccato’ bowing (not easy) and
Katy Garratt, also on the violin,
projected her Grade 1 Toodle Pip extremely well.
Jessica Crichard, flute, performed a lovely Menuet with some beautifully judged trills, and Lucy Nelson, also flute, showed her lovely tone in The Snowman. Laura Browne did well on the trumpet with an excellently rhythmic Ländler by Diabelli.
Finally, there were a few songs performed in preparation for the National Youth Choir of Great Britain auditions. Sam Dent sang a perfectly pitched ‘Where a Knight Won his Spurs’, Anna Skyrme dramatised beautifully her ‘I know where I’m Going’, and Geni Bunce delivered a catchy ‘I have a Bonnet trimmed with Blue’.
Our Orchestral Concert is on December 5th. Do come along for wine and mince pies at 18:15; the concert starts at 18:30. There will be groups, instrumental and choral, the orchestra, and plenty of solo items.
All welcome!
Annie Bull
Head of Music
For our second, and probably last, Informal Concert this term, we gathered in the Front Hall to listen to a good mix of items. There was an excellent turnout of parents (a number of grandparents, too), which always gives a good atmosphere and so much support – I did say in my introduction, though, that if friends and relations can’t make it, then we always have a good school audience of friends and teachers. These events are designed to give the children confidence, from the initial announcing of name and piece to the performance itself.
In this second half of term, we were able to hear a number of children who started learning the piano this term.
Rory Crichard gave a splendidly authoritative Old Macdonald,
Arabella Green gave good accounts of both Mary had
a Little Lamb and Marching, and Laetitia Watt had worked hard to deliver a perfect Yankee Doodle. A little more
experienced were James Kemp with an excellent demonstration of playing ‘hands together’ in Autumn,
Lucy Marriott
in confident renditions of Boating Lake and We Three Kings, Ben Humphrey with an authoritative version of the popular
Grade 1 piece Tarantella, India Roberts in a delightful Study, and both
Georgia Barrett and Cecilia Roberts in parts
of the Prep Test syllabus, playing Jogalong and Boating respectively.
Jess Kenyon-Slaney generously played two pieces
with The Little Cossack and Unto Us a Boy is born, showing noticeable improvement since the previous Informal.
George
Harris delivered the Grade 1 Vampire Blues with splendid assurance.
The concert opened with all of Form I playing Walking in the Air on the recorder – a super performance where the children played accurately and confidently, helped by our music gap student Hugh Bortolotti. Hugh stepped into the limelight again at the end of the concert, when he conducted the Junior Brass Group in Gentle River – difficult without a warm-up, but this large group acquitted itself with aplomb.
Elsewhere we heard some promising string playing. Thomas Jackson, violin, played an atmospheric Walk on Mars with
lots of sliding up and down to harmonics, and Maisie Clay performed a beautifully tuned Go Tell Aunt Rhody (her own
choice piece for her Prep Test later this term). Libby Glanville, violin, let us hear one of her Grade 3 pieces, The
Two Grenadiers, played with excellent ‘slurred staccato’ bowing (not easy) and
Katy Garratt, also on the violin,
projected her Grade 1 Toodle Pip extremely well.
Jessica Crichard, flute, performed a lovely Menuet with some beautifully judged trills, and Lucy Nelson, also flute, showed her lovely tone in The Snowman. Laura Browne did well on the trumpet with an excellently rhythmic Ländler by Diabelli.
Finally, there were a few songs performed in preparation for the National Youth Choir of Great Britain auditions. Sam Dent sang a perfectly pitched ‘Where a Knight Won his Spurs’, Anna Skyrme dramatised beautifully her ‘I know where I’m Going’, and Geni Bunce delivered a catchy ‘I have a Bonnet trimmed with Blue’.
Our Orchestral Concert is on December 5th. Do come along for wine and mince pies at 18:15; the concert starts at 18:30. There will be groups, instrumental and choral, the orchestra, and plenty of solo items.
All welcome!
Annie Bull
Head of Music
Informal Concert October 2011
As one parent said, who came to hear her child in our first Informal Concert of the term, ‘How lovely, we don’t get lunchtime concerts in Hay on Wye’. And indeed I thought this event worked particularly well, with an excellent combination of children and music, and a splendid turnout from parents, children and staff. The Front Hall was full, and the length exactly right, the music finishing in plenty of time for the younger girls to change for their match.
We started with the junior string group, Puppy Dog Strings, with footprints in the Snow, a jazzy piece much enjoyed in rehearsal. Several young pianists announced themselves and their music, starting with Octavia Riggall and an imaginatively played Sleigh Ride. Geni Bunce gave splendid lilt and rhythm to Stroll On, part of the Grade 3 syllabus, and Ali Hawkins, more usually at home in the senior concerts on her violin, showed a confident start on the piano. Brother Jamie Hawkins displayed great stage presence with the guitar in Mountain Tune.
Jessica Crichard dispatched Fun Run on the flute with great aplomb and lovely tone, while Emily Archer enjoyed a jazzed up version of Twinkle on the clarinet. Imogen Marriott, also on the piano, in her first concert at St Richard’s played a confident My Black Cat on the piano and sister Lucy Marriott gave us a splendid Hot Cross Buns; another newcomer pianist to the school Isabel Franco-Garrido also did well with Row your Boat.
Katy Garratt, violin, gave us an immaculate, beautifully judged Vicar of Bray and Louis de Rohan on the piano gave Captain Silver the full benefit of his enjoyment of the piece. Pianists India Roberts and Jess Kenyon-Slaney both played two pieces, making the audience wait to clap at the end of the second, showing some confidence in presenting a short programme. Natasia Singleton, piano, gave a wonderfully authoritative account of the Grade 1 piece Tarantella, and George Harris showed some promising playing in another Grade 1 piano choice, Andante. Caspian Cowan Taylor, viola, played a splendid Jupiter, with plenty of dynamics and feeling, fresh from playing to the music department at Shrewsbury. The concert finished with the Junior Boys’ Choir in Michaelmas Daisies – all the boys from Forms I, II & III disguising nerves and bashfulness and sending the audience away with a smile.
My thanks to all the music staff.
Annie Bull
As one parent said, who came to hear her child in our first Informal Concert of the term, ‘How lovely, we don’t get lunchtime concerts in Hay on Wye’. And indeed I thought this event worked particularly well, with an excellent combination of children and music, and a splendid turnout from parents, children and staff. The Front Hall was full, and the length exactly right, the music finishing in plenty of time for the younger girls to change for their match.
We started with the junior string group, Puppy Dog Strings, with footprints in the Snow, a jazzy piece much enjoyed in rehearsal. Several young pianists announced themselves and their music, starting with Octavia Riggall and an imaginatively played Sleigh Ride. Geni Bunce gave splendid lilt and rhythm to Stroll On, part of the Grade 3 syllabus, and Ali Hawkins, more usually at home in the senior concerts on her violin, showed a confident start on the piano. Brother Jamie Hawkins displayed great stage presence with the guitar in Mountain Tune.
Jessica Crichard dispatched Fun Run on the flute with great aplomb and lovely tone, while Emily Archer enjoyed a jazzed up version of Twinkle on the clarinet. Imogen Marriott, also on the piano, in her first concert at St Richard’s played a confident My Black Cat on the piano and sister Lucy Marriott gave us a splendid Hot Cross Buns; another newcomer pianist to the school Isabel Franco-Garrido also did well with Row your Boat.
Katy Garratt, violin, gave us an immaculate, beautifully judged Vicar of Bray and Louis de Rohan on the piano gave Captain Silver the full benefit of his enjoyment of the piece. Pianists India Roberts and Jess Kenyon-Slaney both played two pieces, making the audience wait to clap at the end of the second, showing some confidence in presenting a short programme. Natasia Singleton, piano, gave a wonderfully authoritative account of the Grade 1 piece Tarantella, and George Harris showed some promising playing in another Grade 1 piano choice, Andante. Caspian Cowan Taylor, viola, played a splendid Jupiter, with plenty of dynamics and feeling, fresh from playing to the music department at Shrewsbury. The concert finished with the Junior Boys’ Choir in Michaelmas Daisies – all the boys from Forms I, II & III disguising nerves and bashfulness and sending the audience away with a smile.
My thanks to all the music staff.
Annie Bull
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