Monday, January 20, 2014

Some interesting singing things!

The Schola is busy learning amongst many other things Allegri''s Miserere for our concert in February and most importantly for Ash Wednesday.

Here is a performance of an abridged version by the Choir of Kings College, Cambridge.


On my desk this week have landed the forms for this Summer's Eton Choral Course. It is essential that as many of the lower voices as possible attend the courses this Summer.

Meanwhile, this video of the Incognitos, the close harmony singing group at Eton, has become a bit of an internet sensation with nearly 20,000 hits in a week. No wonder! Just listen to the quality of this singing.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgl7QV8ACjU

It must be time to get the Barbershop group going again!

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Masterclass with the Wayne Escoffery Band

On Tuesday this week we were fortunate to be able to welcome to the School Wayne Escoffery and his fabulous band to work with our pupils in an excellent masterclass.

For nearly two hours tenor saxophonist Wayne and his fellow musicians worked with our most advanced jazzers, playing for them, answering questions and then leading an improvising session.




Advice given centered around the importance of listening to as much jazz as possible and transcribing solos so that students could begin to develop a proper jazz vocabulary. Otherwise, as Wayne put it, improvising is like "baby talk" - you can make sounds but you're not really making any jazz sense.

Here is Wayne in action with his band:


And here he is playing with the amazing Mingus Big Band.


Monday, January 6, 2014

Musical events in the Lent Term

This Lent term is full of exciting musical adventures and some very beautiful concert venues!

On Sunday 9 March the Vaughan will will give a concert at the spectacular LSO St Lukes (pictured) with our Orchestra in Residence, Southbank Sinfonia. The Vaughan's orchestra will sit alongside their professional counterparts performing Rimsky Korsakov's great showpiece Scheherazade. The first half will be a performance of Durufle's Requiem (in the rarely performed full orchestral version) sung by the Vaughan Schola accompanied by Southbank Sinfonia.  Tickets will very shortly be available from LSO St Lukes.



On Tuesday 8 April  the School will make a welcome return to St John's, Smith Square, in a programme of music by Rachmaninov and Poulenc. Dominic Doutney will be the soloist in the Russian composer's Second Piano Concerto. The second half of the concert will be choral music, the four Lenten motets by Poulenc and his witty and sparkling setting of the Gloria.




The Spring Instrumental Concert on Thursday 27 March will again offer the instrumentalists chance to shine and this year is being held in the Wathen Hall at St Paul's School.



The Schola is to be busy as always, singing twice at Westminster Cathedral (25 January and 22 March) as well as giving a concert as part of the Brandenburg Festival on Friday 7 February at Kings College Chapel on the Strand (pictured).  Ash Wednesday will see the choir leading the School's services and in the final week of term there is to be a Stations of the Cross service for parents which they will sing at. The Schola trebles are also to sing on the soundtrack for the forthcoming Johnny Depp movie, Transcendence. There is operatic work too, with the boys returning to the Royal Opera House for Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten in March. Very excitingly, in February the Schola is take part in a workshop with world renowned choral conductor David Hill.



The Big Band will be busy returning to the newly refurbished Bull's Head in Barnes for the first time in over a year - and possibly somewhere else as well: further details to follow! In January the boys will have the chance to take part in a masterclass with saxophonist Wayne Escoffery (pictured). 




And hroughout the term we will be running our annual Music Competition.

That should be enough to keep us going!

Full details of all events can be seen on the School's website. 

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The highlights of 2013

2013 was a very successful year for the Vaughan's Music Department. Some of the many highlights included:

  • Our annual concert with Southbank Sinfonia in February, which included a performance of Schumann's First Symphony.


  • Three wonderful masterclasses, with jazz legend Arturo Sandoval, world renowned counter tenor Iestyn Davies (pictured) and with James O'Donnell, Master of the Choristers and Organist of Westminster Abbey.

  • Winning an Oscar! Or at least singing on the score that won Best Score at the Oscars, Mychael Danna's wonderful score for Life Of Pi.  It was quite a day too when composer Mychael and the director of Life and Pi, the remarkable Ang Le, visited the School to thank the boys for their work on the film.


  • Bach's St Matthew Passion at Easter, where thirteen pupils performed solo roles in a wonderful performance of this greatest of all musical pinnacles.


  • Boys from the Vaughan have taken part in more opera during 2013 than ever before. This year boys have sung in Tosca, Gloriana, Die Zauberflote and Turandot at Covent Garden and in the Magic Flute and La Boheme at English National Opera. 


  •  The Schola's tour to Poland at Easter where the choir sang live on Polish National Television and Radio at the Mass for Divine Mercy, a Polish National occasion.

  • The Schola's recording of its new CD, In Honour of Our Lady, at Douai Abbey in June. 



  • In October the Big Band travelled to Hong Kong for a series of concerts.




The Department's New Resource

At the end of last term we were took delivery of the Music Department's newest resource, the complete Hyperion Record Label output on CD. This collection of 1300 CDs has been given to the School by Hyperion.

It is an incredible collection over the entire spectrum of music - sacred and secular, choral and solo vocal, orchestral, chamber and instrumental. It includes many award winning recordings and work by groups such as the Tallis Scholars, Polyphony, Westminster Cathedral Choir, Westminster Abbey Choir, and artists such as Stephen Hough, Angela Hewitt, Gerard Finley and many, many others.

It looks pretty good too!