14 April 2023 Abingdon Music Practising hard On 25 January, 8 different chamber groups had a workshop with some of the music teachers, in preparation for the Pro Corda National Chamber Music Competition. The chamber groups involved in this workshop were string quartets, cello groups, a brass quartet and a piano quartet. 28 pupils played a wide variety of repertoire, including Mozart, Beethoven, Gabrieli, Kabalevsky and a few others. These workshops help to advance the standard of our musicians as well as build confidence. All of them worked really hard and we are proud of the dedication they showed. Annual Singers’ Platform The 1st Solo Singers’ Platform since 2020 returned on 7 March. Focusing on a group of Abingdon’s most able and committed singers aged between 14 and 18, a range of repertoire from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries was presented, accompanied by Mr Yeats. From Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Schumann’s Die beiden Grenadier to Billy Joel’s Just the Way You Are to Feeling Good by Bricusse and Newley, each performance was expertly executed with a great deal of style. Rock Concert Whilst the temperature outside was plummeting on a snowy March day, the heat inside the Amey Theatre was turned right up as the 1st annual Rock Concert was being staged. With a near capacity crowd, the 12 separate acts played with great energy and verve. Pieces ranged from Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Megadeth’s Tornado of Souls to Guns n Roses’ Sweet Child ‘O’ Mine and Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. Congratulations to all performers and our sincere thanks go to the Amey Theatre Technical team for their superb staging of the event. Rock on! On 28 February, the annual chamber music evening took place, providing 95 minutes of enthralling and varied chamber music, arranged by the students with no intervention or direction from staff. We heard performers from across all year groups playing a variety of genres including strings, woodwind, piano, cello and brass; and choosing between the more traditional Gabrieli, Bach and Handel, to contemporary composer, Colin Cowles, and everything in between! The concert was rounded off by a polished performance by Ryan Ng, Walter Liu, Yubo Gao and Thomas Zhang who were then presented with the Chamber Ensemble shield. Many congratulations to them and to all performers for a delightful evening. Annual Chamber Music Evening
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