The Alleynian 712 2024

Money (violin), Ryan Nguyen (viola), Vivek Kukreja (cello) and Aidan Leung (piano). They were followed by a Year 8 group playing the Adagio from Trio Sonata in E minor by Johann Joachim Quantz. This is probably the first time we have had a Music Scholar performing on the recorder, and Jasper Shapton played and led this group with real style, accompanied with equal verve by Emilio Macchi (vi- olin), Orfeas Karavas (viola) and Arseniy Gushchin (piano). Next, we were treated to the first movement from Mo- zart’s Horn Concerto No 3, performed by with Marco Wong (Year 13) on the French horn, and Perkyns Ho (Year 11) on the piano, and this was followed by the slow, lyrical Andante con moto tranquillo from Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor. The three Year 12 players, Nikolas Vrahimis (violin), Zac Seymour (cello) and Elliot Coulson (piano), have established themselves as a chamber group and are keen to stay together to explore more of the repertoire for this combination. Trombonists Bertie Poullis (Year 12) and Tom Hornby (Year 13), then gave a wonder- ful performance of ‘ A Song for Japan ’, by Steven Verhelst. The first half of the concert was brought to a happy close by the Percussion Ensemble, led on the marimba by Head of Percussion, Emily Eno. They played a delight- ful work called Left Bank Two by Wayne Hill, arranged by S. Guard. The four percussionists, Jowan Ng (Year 11), Perkyns Ho (Year 11) Kanten Sze (Year 11) and Will Carter (Year 12), played a colourful variety of percussion instruments, displaying a high level of skill and sensitivity. The second half began with two movements, (Introduction and Grand Choral) from Stravinsky’s famous (and chal- lenging) work L’Histoire du soldat. This work is often per- formed with a narrator; however, this performance was for septet only, the performers being Henry Rossell (clar- inet, Year 12), Raphael Leung(bass clarinet, Year 12), Will Carter (trumpet), Tom Hornby (trombone), Henry Arm- strong (double bass, Year 12), Kanten Sze (percussion), and myself on violin, standing in for Will Barter-Sheppard (Year 13) who was unfortunately unable to attend the con- cert. Clíodna Shanahan, Head of Keyboard, conducted the group for the performance. Next we heard the first movement, Allegro, from Tele- mann’s Trio Sonata in C minor. This was very sensitively played by William Harper (flute, Year 12), Marcus Ng (vi- olin, Year 10) and Ari Guichard (piano, Year 11), and was followed by the very beautiful and lyrical third movement,

SINGING COMPETITION DAN LUDFORD-THOMAS, HEAD OF VOCAL STUDIES

The College’s Singing Competition took place in Novem- ber in the Old Library. The adjudicator was professional soprano and singing teacher Carys Lane, who gave all the singers the benefit of her wisdom, with insightful and instructive feedback. Although a competition, there was a great deal of support amongst the singers, enabling all to perform to the best of their abilities. The Advanced section of the competition also saw pianists competing to win the Tim Barratt Cup for the Piano Accompanist Prize, with some truly excellent collaborations between singers and pianists taking place. RESULTS TREBLE 1st James White (Year 9) 2nd Taylor Lai (Year 9) 3rd Alessandro Minarik (Year 9) Promising treble: Oli Brown (Year 6) INTERMEDIATE 1st Henry Findlay (Year 10) Commended: Luca Mercuri (Year 10) ADVANCED 1st William Barter-Sheppard (Year 13) 2nd Hugo Jopling (Year 11) 3rd Henry Armstrong (Year 12) Piano Accompanist Prize: Elliot Coulson (Year 12)

MUSIC AWARD HOLDERS’ CONCERT LESLEY LARKUM, HEAD OF STRINGS

One of the jewels in the Music Department’s crown is its chamber music programme, and the Music Award Hold- ers’ Concert brought this into brilliant focus. Nine chamber music ensembles and two soloists per- formed in this concert, which was divided into two halves and opened with a lively rendition of the first movement, Allegro risoluto ben marcato, from Mozart’s Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor. The Year 10 ensemble comprised Henry

93

MUSIC

Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker