Page 8 - Barcelona Tour 2014

Abingdon School is an independent day and boarding school for boys. The School is recognised
as a place of academic excellence with a strong ethos and sense of community, and with a wide
range of extra-curricular activities, known as the ‘Other Half’. The School’s origins lie with those of
the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary, originally founded in Abingdon in 675 and re-founded in 950.
The first written evidence of the School’s existence dates from 1256 when the Abbot of Abingdon,
John de Blosneville, left money in his will for the support of thirteen poor scholars. However, the
School could already have been 300 years old by this time. By 1372 Abingdon School was a
flourishing institution with two boarding houses. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in
1538, the School was re-founded as a grammar school. Since the beginning of the twentieth
century it has grown steadily in size – from fewer than 100 pupils in 1900 to 850 in 2000. In 1944
it adopted direct grant status and in 1976 decided to become fully independent.
The Music Department has a well-deserved reputation for its high standards and hosts a
distinguished team of professional music teachers who travel from the local area as well as
London and further afield. The School prides itself on both the range and quality of music making
with some 60% of boys involved in music lessons and ensembles that rehearse throughout the
week. The music staff are committed to offering the boys every possible support and encourage
a wide variety of music making. Weekly lunchtime concerts give the boys regular performing
opportunities. Highlights of the department’s work over the last two decades have been tours to
Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Italy, the Far East and USA. The
department also places particular emphasis on chamber music with ensembles having appeared
in the finals of the National Chamber Music Competition in recent years. Boys go on to study
Music and win regular places at Oxford and Cambridge, often with organ or choral scholarships.
CHOIRS:
Joint Choral Society, Lower School Choir, Chapel Choir, Theatre Productions,
Abingdon Academicals (close harmony singing), Joint Schools Chamber Choir
ORCHESTRAS:
First Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Second Orchestra, Junior String,
Thames Vale Youth Orchestra
BANDS:
Symphonic Wind Band, Brass Band, Lower School Band, Big Band
CHAMBER MUSIC:
Trumpet Quartets, Double Reeds, Clarinet Choir, Saxophone Quartet, Horn Quartet, Brass
Quartets, Trombone Ensemble, Jazz Ensembles, String Quartets, Duos, Cello Ensembles
AB I NGDON SCHOOL AND THE MUS IC DEPARTMENT