Music in Michaelmas Term 2017

This is what appeared in the Vaughan's End of Term Review for Michaelmas Term 2017.

Life in the Music Department has been very busy since September and the term has been characterised by a strong, positive approach to rehearsals with lots of lovely music-making as a consequence. There have been a number of concerts of course and many other events besides where the boys have been able to display their musical skills.  The concerts are only the visible aspect of what we do – rather like a swan (or maybe it an iceberg is a better analogy!) the energy that drives the music department is working away very hard under the surface whilst it appears to glide effortlessly across the water! [someone is getting carried away!] The beating heart of this engine is the music class lessons – taught to a very good standard and taken very seriously by all the music teachers. Mr Jackson, as Head of Academic Music does great work in this aspect of the School’s musical life, as do Mr Harris and Mr Evans. Beyond the class lessons there are very many (more than 400) instrumental and singing lessons taking place each week. The visiting instrumental staff are very strong and our pupils are very fortunate to have such a talented and dedicated team of teachers. And looking after all of this of course is our administrator, Tanya Watkins. If you have been in communication with Miss Watkins you will I am quite sure have found her thoroughly helpful and supremely organised. Nothing is too much trouble for Tanya. We are very lucky to have her working with us. Very many thanks to all those involved in the music work at the School – I am truly fortunate to lead such a great team. We were all very pleased to learn the Department has been nominated for ‘Best School Music Department’ Award in the Music Teacher Awards for Excellence, to be decided in February. Fingers crossed that we might win and many thanks to the parents who I assume must have nominated us!

There were two excellent Early Evening Recitals this term, the first in October given by the younger boys and the second in November by the older boys and girls. The second concert included a very good performance of Bach’s E major Violin concerto with Harry Fetherstonhaugh of the Fifth Form as soloist. It was a different violinist, Molly McFadden of the Upper Sixth who was soloist with Senior Strings at Speech Day, giving a strong performance of Spring from the Four Seasons by Vivaldi. Molly has made huge strides in her playing since joining the School and is now a very accomplished player.

In October the Sixth Form Choir sang Evensong alongside the Choir of Merton College, Oxford, in the splendid setting of Merton Chapel. One of our former pupils is currently Organ Scholar there. This was a very lovely occasion and the choir sang very well indeed. The excellent standard of the Sixth Form Choir could be heard very clearly at the St Cecilia Concert in November when they sang music by Dyson. I have not heard the girls singing so strongly for many years – congratulations to them and to Mr Jackson for leading them with such skill.

The St Cecilia concert at St Paul’s Hammersmith was a splendid occasion, very well attended by large numbers of parents as is so wonderfully the norm for Vaughan concerts – how lucky we are to enjoy such support. First Orchestra opened proceedings with a strong reading of the Karelia Suite by Sibelius. I am not sure why it has taken me 23 years to do this piece with the orchestra as it is a perfect fit and the orchestra greatly enjoyed learning it and performing it. It featured our excellent horn section, with Joshua Schrijnen of the Fifth Form leading from the front, and also a really quite exquisite cor anglais solo from Oliviero Kelly of the Fourth Form. Oliviero had only picked up the cor anglais for the first time a few weeks before and so his performance, which was so beautifully shaped and musical, was all the more remarkable. First Orchestra has been in excellent form this term and attendance has been strong – I am very much looking forward to working with them next term.

The Schola also sang in the St Cecilia concert, performing some items from the recent South Africa Tour, including a piece in Zulu entitled Ukuthula which came complete with (minimal!) choreography (or choralography as it sometimes called). This may well have been a first for the Schola. The boys also sang Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer, not with one soloist as on our recent recording (which you can buy on iTunes) but with the treble solo duties shared between nine boys. It is great to have such depth of ability within the choir.

Second Orchestra also performed very nicely that evening and Senior Strings performed the Vivaldi Concerto referred to above with Molly McFadden as soloist. Her performance quite rightly received a very warm reception. Earlier in the concert we also enjoyed the Concert Band in a medley of songs by Frank Sinatra which had everyone foot-tapping along. The main work of the evening though was Beethoven’s Mass in C, performed by School Choir, directed by Mr Jackson. Putting together these large-scale works with orchestra and a big choir is not easy, especially in a very short time-frame, and Mr Jackson did a super job of bringing it all together on the day, as he had done teaching the work to the choir during the term. It was a very good performance with lots of solo singing from the pupils and an excellent, confident choral sound.

The Big Band played at the Bull’s Head in Barnes in October, entertaining a large crowd with a fun afternoon of swing and jazz tunes. They also played at the Senior Citizens Christmas Party in December, giving the annual airing to the Big Band Christmas numbers we know and love. Senior Brass were on good from at the Vaughan’s foundation Day Mass at Westminster Cathedral in September are also due to play music by Gabrieli at the start of Tuesday’s Carol Service. This will be the first time for a number of years that we have been able to get a group of Brass players together to play before the opening of the service and I am very pleased with the determined way the boys have approached this music and grateful to Mr Gucklhorn who has taught them with great patience and fortitude.

The Schola Cantorum has had a very strong term, the centrepiece of which was the tour to South Africa. This was a wonderful experience for us all. The choir continues to sing each week at the School’s Mass and there have been several whole school occasions when it has sang too – Foundation Day Mass at Westminster Cathedral, Speech Day and Mass for the Feast of All Saints at Our Lady of Victories being three such instances. The choir has also been very busy outside of School, singing for a Remembrance Day Evensong at Holy Trinity, Sloane Square in November and also traveling to Cambridge to give a joint Evensong in the famous chapel of St John’s College. Towards the end of term there have been numerous Carol Services, including one rather unusual evening when the trebles were at The National Liberal Club whilst the Tenors and Basses were entertaining at The Athenaeum. The younger boys also sang for the Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea’s Carol Service, given in the presence of HRH Princess Michael of Kent. The boys got to meet Her Royal Highness afterwards, with the main topic of conversation being the wonderful fur coat she was wearing.

Rehearsals in the final weeks of term focused around the Carol Service and also Handel’s Messiah, which the Schola sang at Holy Trinity, Sloane Square in December. The boys just love singing Messiah and they know it well – we sang it last year too. The treble line in the Schola is especially strong at the moment and the combination of these factors made for, if I can say so myself, a very strong performance, easily the best concert I have given with the choir. There were very strong solo contributions from Aidan Cole, Sam Lyne-Hall, Joe Walshe, James Outtrim, Jaedon DeMello, Alessio D’Andrea, Karol Jozwik, Alex Gula, Benedykt Chodzko-Zajko, Joseph Guzman Santamaria and Harold Ayres. We drew a very large audience and were very pleased as a result to be able to make a donation of £1000 to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital – one of the boys in the Schola has received treatment there for a number of year and it was lovely to be able to give the concert in support of the amazing work of that wonderful institution.

The night before our performance of Messiah the younger boys had been at St John’s, Smith Square, performing alongside the Gabrieli Consort and conductor Paul McCreesh in a performance of music by Praetorius, celebrating the 500 anniversary of the Reformation. This involved extensive singing in German as well as our more usual Latin, in quite exposed solo verses. The boys acquitted themselves very well in front of a large audience, including four boys, Aidan Cole, Sam Lyne-Hall, Joe Walshe and James Outtrim who sang very beautiful solos. Aidan opened the concert with a totally unaccompanied solo verse, hidden away at the back of St John’s. He is particularly fearless, though none of the boys appear fazed by these high pressure situations. They just get on with it! The Schola boys have all worked very hard this term and especially in the past few weeks as Christmas has approached. I thank them for their efforts and also their parents for the invaluable support they provide.

So all in all a very good term’s work. Many thanks to all the parents, pupils and staff who have worked together to make it all possible. Next term is full of exciting events including the Big Band Evening, the annual collaboration with Southbank Sinfonia, a trip to York Minster for the Schola, our annual Music Competition and lots more besides. Do follow us on Twitter (@cvmsmusic) and on Facebook (FB/cvmsmusic) to be kept up to date with the goings on on the top floor!

The year ahead: 2017-18

Another exciting year lies ahead for the music-making at the Vaughan with the singers and instrumentalists again set to perform a wide variety of music, alongside a number of professional groups and in many different settings.

Performances will be given in London and beyond at venues that are to include Merton College, Oxford, St John's College, Cambridge, Southwark Cathedral and York Minster, Arundel Cathedral, St John's Smith Square and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Highlights will include the tenth anniversary of our partnership with Southbank Sinfonia, which we will celebrate with a concert in March. The Big Band, marking twenty years since its first performance, will play at the Bull's Head in Barnes once again as well as leading the annual Big Band celebration. Choral highlights will include Beethoven's Mass in C in the Michaelmas Term sung by the School Choir and for the Sixth Form Choir, singing Evensong at Merton College, Oxford in October and at Southwark Cathedral in November.

The Schola Cantorum will perform Handel's Messiah in December, accompanied by St James' Baroque at Holy Trinity, Sloane Square and in April will perform once again alongside His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts in a performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, to be given at St James's, Spanish Place.

In October the Schola travels to South Africa for the first time, singing concerts and services, including at Regina Mundi Cathedral in Soweto and St George's Cathedral, Cape Town. The Schola is also to work alongside school and youth choirs in a wide variety of settings during the trip.

In January boys from the Vaughan will return to the Royal Opera House once again, singing in Puccini's Tosca, some performances of which are to be conducted by Placido Domingo.

Other highlights will no doubt include the St Cecilia Concert in November, the Carol Service at the end of the Michaelmas Term, the Spring Instrumental Concert in March and of course the year will end with our musical - which show it will be is yet to be decided!

Music in the Lent Term 2017: A Review

This Lent Term began and ended with the remarkable achievement of one pupil in particular, Owen Saldanha in the Upper Sixth. It began with Owen performing with the National Youth Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall and ended with his performing Ravel’s G major Piano Concerto at St John’s, Smith Square, as part of the Vaughan’s Easter Concert. Owen is a prodigiously gifted musician – this term has seen him add a Diploma on the Piano (passed with Distinction) to the ARCO qualification that he achieved on the organ last term. He also won the Vaughan’s Music Competition, although he was run pretty close that evening by another remarkable talent, Filippo Turkheimer. And these are just two of the many, and it is many, remarkable musicians that we have at the School. In all different kinds of music too. What a precious gift the musical traditions of the School are – and how lucky we are that so many pupils take full advantage of it.

Throughout the term we have run our Annual Music Competition with 90 pupils participating in five heats. The Final held at the end of March was adjudicated by David Hill, conductor of the BBC Singers and the Bach Choir. David awarded the first places to Alessio D’Andrea and Owen, as I mentioned above, whilst describing the standard of the performances as a whole as “extraordinary”.

The winners of the Heats were as follows:

Piano (Adjudicator, Anthony Williams, Radley College)

Junior: Alessandro Mackinnon & Alexander Wu

Senior: William Crossley &Owen Saldanha

Strings (Adjudicator, Adrian Bradbury, Cellist)

Junior: Gabriele Montone & Nilton Aranda Neto

Senior: Harry Fetherstonhaugh & Justin Perfecto

Woodwind (Adjudicator, Amanda Cousin, Flautist)

Junior: Dominic de Vivenot & Luke Ngyuen

Senior: Logan Stewart & Owen Saldanha

Brass (Adjudicator, Amos Miller, Trombonist)

Junior: Barnaby Stewart & Joshua Schrijnen

Senior: Filippo Turkheimer & Joseph Bingham Cooper

Singing (Adjudicator, Diana Moore, Mezzo Soprano)

Junior: Alessio D’Andrea & James Fernandes

Senior: Sean Roche Watson, Filippo Trukheimer & Emilia Staniaszek

Overall Winners (Adjudicator, David Hill, Conductor & Organist)

Junior: Alessio D’Andrea

Senior: Owen Saldanha

Earlier in the term we once again held our annual collaboration with Southbank Sinfonia, our ‘orchestra in residence’. This involved an excellent composition workshop, with the professional musicians bringing to life compositions by pupils from across the School and then side-by-side preparation of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, conducted by David Corkhill (see video below).  Working with Southbank Sinfonia is always one of the highlights of the School’s music year and this year was no exception. It was especially rewarding to see how very excited by the work this year’s set of Vaughan participants were and also lovely to see how very positive and helpful this year’s Southbank Sinfonia contingent were too. This is a wonderful collaboration that next year will celebrate its tenth anniversary: there are big plans afoot!

The orchestra also performed at the Spring Concert, held at St Paul’s Church in March. We set the church up differently to try to help people see more clearly what was going on - sight lines are not easy in that building – and this seemed to work very well. The older boys and girls played very nicely that evening but it was the work of the younger boys that was particularly impressive. Second Orchestra has never been so big or so strong – under the expert guidance of Mr Jackson it is flourishing and has developed that all important sense of identity as a group, with which comes loyalty and commitment. Also really very good were Jazz Orchestra, superbly directed by Miss Wilby, who also steered the stronger than ever Junior Big Band through their contribution. It was lovely to see the younger boys playing with such confidence in some complicated music, and also lovely to see that way that the older boys were so supportive of their younger fellow musicians. This was an evening marked by a strong sense of camaraderie among the pupils.  Mention should also be made of Mr Manoras who directed both Junior and Senior Strings with his customary flair and precision. 

The Big Band performed at the Spring Concert and have been busy elsewhere besides this term, playing at the Half Moon in Putney in January and at the Bulls Head in Barnes at the end of term. In February we held the always popular Big Band Evening, at which there were some excellent vocalists alongside the Band, providing an evening of real entertainment. If you’ve never seen a Big Band concert do come along – we do have a quite a good time! The Band is always in a state of flux and we are about to lost some good players as this year’s Upper Sixth leave, but some of the younger boys who have been finding their feet in important seats in the band are now fully establishing themselves and the band shows great potential.

The Schola Cantorum has worked very hard this term, singing each Wednesday for the School Mass whilst also preparing a number of memorable events. Early in the term we sang for the Vigil Mass at Westminster Cathedral and then a little later in January gave a concert at St Peter’s, Eaton Square for Aid to the Church in Need. At the concert the Schola gave its first ever performance of The Twelve by William Walton, a famously difficult work, both for the choir and the organist (see the video below). The Schola acquitted itself admirably, assisted, as always, by the quite brilliant accompanying of Mr Evans. The concert, which also included the Requiem by Duruflé, raised £750 for the crucial work of ACN. 

In February the Schola travelled to Liverpool, having been granted the considerable honour of singing the Sunday services as guests of the Metropolitan Cathedral. We had a great weekend, also singing a concert at the Dome from Home, on the Wirral.  Before half-term the Schola also sang the first performance of the winning composition in a competition run for the Music Education Expo held at the Olympia. 

For Ash Wednesday, at Our Lady of Victories for the whole School, the Schola prepared the annual performance of Allegri’s Miserere with the famous top C acrobatics for one of the trebles. The duty fell to Aidan Cole this year, who sang them admirably, assisted by James Fernandes who sang one, and also by Joseph Short who sang the less flamboyant but arguably more difficult second treble part in the repeating solo verses.

Most of this half-term was spent preparing for a very special event though, a concert entitled Festa Venziana!, given with an ensemble called His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts and tenors Nicholas Mulroy and Peter Davoren. His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts perform on instruments that are the same as those used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and together we presented a programme of music from Venice at that time. The concert was given in the twelfth century Temple Church, the first time the Schola has performed there, and as part of the Temple Music Foundation Concert Series. Being involved in this prestigious concert series helped us draw a large audience and also resulted in the concert being professionally reviewed – four stars! 

There was one further event for the Schola when at the end of March the choir sang Evensong at Westminster Abbey. This was an especially lovely occasion marked by some very fine singing from the choir in music by Henry Purcell, who was organist at the Abbey and is buried just a few feet from where the choir sang.

The term came to an end with the Easter Concert, held on Saturday 8 April at St John’s, Smith Square. This included the Ravel G major Piano Concerto performed by Owen Saldanha; Owen gave the most remarkably brilliant performance of this difficult, complex work, accompanied exquisitely by the Belgravia Chamber Orchestra.  This was followed by the most colossal undertaking for many years by the Music Department, as we performed Vaughan William’s A Sea Symphony. This huge work, a setting of poetry by Walt Whitman, represented a very considerable challenge but the choir rose magnificently to the occasion. We were joined by two wonderful professional soloists, Sarah Fox and Duncan Rock. It brought to a close a wonderful term of music-making, full of variety and challenge for all. Well done to everyone who has been of this term's roller-coaster ride and very many thanks to the parents for all their support. 

Music in Lent Term 2017

A very busy term lies ahead for the Vaughan's musicians with a series of concert opportunities that sees the boys and girls performing all across London and beyond.

Throughout the term we will run our Annual Music Competition. Each competition is held at the Vaughan, starting at 6 pm.

Wednesday 25 January: Strings: Adjudicator Adrian Bradbury (cellist)
Tuesday 31 January: Piano: Adjudicator, Anthony Williams
Wednesday 8 February: Woodwind: Adjudicator, Amanda Moore (flautist)
Wednesday 22 February: Brass: Adjudicator, Amos Miller (trombonist)
Wednesday 8 March: Singing: Adjudicator, Diana Moore
Wednesday 29 March: Prize Winners final: Adjudicator, David Hill

The term also contains our annual collaboration with Southbank Sinfonia, our orchestra in residence. They will lead a composing workshop on Tuesday 7 February and then our musicians will sit side-by-side with them for a performance of Brahms' Fourth Symphony at 6 pm on Thursday 2 March at St John's, Waterloo.

The School's orchestras and other instrumental ensembles will be on display at our Spring Instrumental Concert which will be held at St Paul's School at 7 pm on Friday 24 March (please note this date has changed from that given in the School Calendar).

The Big Band will be performing that evening and also making two further appearances, at the Half Moon in Putney on Sunday January 29 (1.30 pm) and at the annual Big Band Evening which this year is held in the New Hall on Friday 3 February. The Big Band will be joined for this event by Junior Big Band.

Sixth Form Choir will sing an Evensong at St Gabriel's Church in Pimlico on Sunday 5 March (6.15 pm) and also join with the School Choir for the annual Easter Concert which this year to be held at St John's, Smith Square on Saturday 8 April (please note this is the day after the end of term). The School Choir that evening will sing Vaughan Williams' monumental Sea Symphony. The soloists will be Sarah Fox and Duncan Rock. In the first half of the concert Owen Saldanha will perform Ravel's G major Piano Concerto. This promises to be a memorable evening.

The Schola Cantorum, as well as providing music for the School's weekly liturgies, are to sing two concerts this term. On Thursday 26 January they sing a programme of twentieth century music (Dupré, Walton and Duruflé) at St Peter's, Eaton Square. This concert will raise money for the charity Aid to the Church in Need. On March 14 the Schola will join forces with His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts for a concert entitled Festa Veneziana, an evening of Venetian polychoral music, which is the held at the historic Temple Church in the City of London. Joined by tenor soloists Nicholas Mulroy and Peter Davoren, this concert is given as part of the Temple Music Foundation Concert Series.

In addition the Schola will sing for the Vigil Mass at Westminster Cathedral at 6 pm on Saturday 21 January and 18 March. The choir will also sing for the Solemn Mass at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral on Sunday 5 February and will sing Evensong at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday 28 March.