By Mr Keating-Roberts (Director of Music)

The Music Department was thrilled to be able to host String Fest on the afternoon of Friday 19th May, it was wonderful to come together as a school community to celebrate string instruments! All players of orchestral string instruments in the school were included, from Years 3 right up to the Sixth Form. 

The students had prepared in advance of the day by practising five pieces of music - they could choose their part from different levels of difficulty for each piece, making the experience really inclusive. Then on Friday, the students came together for the first time to form a huge orchestra, and we put all of the pre-practised music together over two hours to create 5 pieces for a full string orchestra. Repertoire included everything from Henry Mancini’s Peter Gunn, to Songs from World War One and Waltzing Matilda.

During the evening, parents of our performers arrived and we were treated to a concert sharing the five orchestral pieces, alongside three solo items from Emily Lawson (Upper Sixth, cello), Eleni Zorn (Lower Sixth, violin) and Simone Erwig (Year 6, violin). The performance was a truly joyous event in which it really seemed evident how much fun the students had had during the day. I was so impressed with our Junior School students who showed fantastic concentration and focus throughout what must have been a very full and non-stop afternoon for them. Our younger students really enjoyed performing with the Seniors, and vice versa as they produced a fabulous standard of performances despite such a fast turn-around in rehearsing their pieces.

Mrs Jones (Music teacher) said (I was delighted to take part and support the younger students on the violin 3 part, it was fantastic to see students across the whole school performing together, what a lovely event!.”

View photos from the rehearsals here.