2 March 2023
The Annual Chamber Music Evening presented us with a delightful concert of incredibly varied music-making at a very high standard.
We heard performers from all year groups of the school from First Year to Upper Sixth, from Gabrieli to Bach and Handel, to contemporary composer, Colin Cowles, and everything in between – Mozart, Beethoven and Weber. The ensemble genres varied from strings to woodwind, piano trios, cello ensembles and a brass quartet
This concert is a particular highlight in the musical calendar as it is the one where the pupils present their work on their own with neither staff direction nor intervention. It is wonderful to hear them making music together, arranging extra rehearsals as necessary, and in performance, really listening to each other and working together both as a team and as soloists.
The school is lucky to have some phenomenally talented musicians at the present time and they are so well supported in their endeavours by a dedicated instrumental staff. We were delighted to hear that five of the school’s chamber ensembles had progressed to the regional finals of the Pro Corda Chamber Music Festival, the National Chamber Music Competition. We hope that we have at least one ensemble in the finals, as we did at last year’s.
Our concert was rounded off by a mature and polished performance of a Piano Trio movement by Beethoven, the ensemble including some of our most gifted musicians – Ryan Ng, Walter Liu, Yubo Gao and Thomas Zhang. At the end of the concert the pupils were presented with the Chamber Ensemble shield, recently donated by a former music teacher at the school.
Our congratulations to them – and to all of the performers and their teachers for a delightful 95 minutes of enthralling chamber music.
