Page 12 - Barcelona Tour 2014

George Burrage (violin) is a music scholar and has been taught by Mariette Pringle since he joined the school in
2009. He has been playing the violin for 10 years and last summer was awarded the dipABRSM performance diploma. He
has recently accepted a place at the Royal Northern College of Music to study Popular Music Performance on the bass
guitar. George plays bass guitar in Big Band and Wind Band as well as in his own jazz trio with Tim Davies and Sebastian
Johns. George studies jazz piano under Dhevdhas Nair.
Finlay Garland (viola) is in the Upper Sixth form at Abingdon. He is taking Maths, Physics and Chemistry for his
A-levels and is hoping to study aerospace engineering at the University of Leeds. At St Andrew’s School, Pangbourne, Finlay
started learning the violin. Taught by Jonathan Burnett he progressed to grade 5 standard before changing to the viola aged
12. Since arriving at Abingdon, Finlay has been learning under the expert eye of Mariette Pringle and has recently passed his
grade 8 with a merit. He has very much enjoyed the variety of music allowed by playing the viola and the range of ensembles
he plays in at the school. Finlay also learns the bagpipes, performing both in and outside the school. His other interests
include squash and kayaking, and as an air cadet he enjoys flying with 612 Volunteer Gliding Squadron.
Sebastian Johns (piano) has been playing the piano since he was 6 years old. At the age of 8 he won a
choristership to the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, with whom he sang for five years. When he left King’s he was
awarded a music scholarship at Abingdon School where he was able to put a larger focus on his instrumental studies, and
has since gained Grade 8 distinctions in piano, cello, organ and singing. He holds an offer to read Music at Cambridge
University, and is set to return to the choir at King’s, where he has a volunteer place to sing tenor starting in October.
Thomas Kelly (violin) is a music scholar and has studied the violin, and more latterly the viola, under the guidance of
Mariette Pringle since he joined Abingdon School in the First Year in 2007. Thomas is an accomplished musician who holds
grade 8 in violin and piano as well as a diploma in singing and he is widely involved in School music both instrumentally and
vocally. Next year he hopes to read Classics at New College, Oxford.
Tim Davies (Trumpet) is studying Further Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. He plans to read Physics at university,
currently holding an offer from Christ Church, Oxford. Tim has played the trumpet for 8 years, presently under the tuition of
Andy Townsend. He is a regular member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra Academy Big Band, holding the 1st or 2nd
trumpet chair. He plays the trumpet and the drums, in various jazz ensembles, one of which won the Chipping Norton Youth
Jazz Band Challenge last year. He has a passion for all types of music, with tastes ranging from jazz to experimental
electronica, and enjoys both performing and making music. He can often be found recording and producing material for his
own or his friends' bands in the Music School studio.
Leon Wu (Piano) started learning the piano at the age of 6 with Pervin Shahin. A Music Scholar at Abingdon School,
he has been taught by Lynette Stulting for the last four years. Since then he has progressed to the finals of the Abingdon
Concerto Competition, the Oxford and Abingdon Music Festivals and the European Piano Teachers Association Piano
Competition. Leon also studies the violin with Mariette Pringle, playing in all the senior ensembles, as well as the Thames
Vale Youth Orchestra and the Oxford Concerto Orchestra.
SOLOI STS