Page 13 - Barcelona Tour 2014

F i rst Orche stra
First Orchestra is one of the music
department’s flagship ensembles, which
has achieved a considerable reputation
in recent years for producing quality
performances of mainstream symphonic
repertoire. Its success can be accounted
for by the now well-established tradition
of proactive recruitment across the full
range of orchestral instruments among
the younger boys (including French horn,
bassoon and double bass) and offering
instrumental tuition from a particularly
distinguished team of some thirty-five
instrumental teachers. The repertoire
includes works of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, including
Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Shostakovich,
Dvorak and Malcolm Arnold.
Chapel Choi r
Chapel Choir is the senior choir of
Abingdon School, which provides music
for services in the school Chapel and
enjoys the opportunity to travel to
prestigious cathedrals and college
chapels to sing Evensong. The Choir
has been directed for the last three
years by John Cotton, the Assistant
Director of Music, who was a
professional counter-tenor singer before
he became a schoolmaster, and was
trained as a choral scholar at Magdalen
College Oxford, and later as a Lay Clerk
at Christ Church Cathedral.