THE Dulwich Despatch Summer 2023
Lower School House Music
Kenneth Lai (8R) describes a concert that took place during the last Great Hall Assembly of the Lent Term. The Lower School House Music finalists ’ concert took place during the last Great Hall assembly of the Lent term on Thursday, 30 March. There were six finalists in both year 7 and year 8, from the houses Sidney, Marlowe, Drake, Spenser and Raleigh. Among the numerous entries of the competition, a select few were chosen to be included in the concert. The adjudicator was Mr R. Mayo, Director of Music at the College. Delivering such performances in front of the entire Lower School is without a doubt a daunting task, and all the talented musicians who gave stunning performances during the concert should be congratulated. I performed the First Movement of Beethoven ’ s Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 2 No. 1, in F minor in the concert, a piece I had been learning and working on for a while, with some assistance from my piano teacher at the Royal Academy of Music. I re - learned the piece shortly before the concert, and hastily submitted a recording to the MyDulwich 365 SharePoint site. After some procrastination, I had a chance to practise my piece before the concert along with two other finalists, Taylor Lai and Olivier Badzioch, both in 8E. Although I practised before the concert, I was overwhelmed with the stage fright of performing in front of such a large audience. Despite being awarded 2nd place in the competition, I was slightly disappointed with my result as I had not performed to the best of my ability. The first performance
Allegro by G.P. Telemann on the violin, accompanied by Dr. A. Storey on the piano. The end result was a lively and energetic performance which reflected the style and tempo of the baroque piece. George Ayres from Marlowe gave an impressive solo trumpet performance with clarity in the notes and great dynamic contrast. Next up was Taylor Lai (8E) from Sidney, performing “ Venetian Boat Song No. 2”, No. 6 from Book 2 (Op. 30) of Felix Mendelssohn ’ s renowned Songs Without Words. In his performance, Taylor expressed the deep emotion of the slow, relaxing, lyrical piece with a good balance between the two hands, and a good rubato in the melodic line, accompanied with great pedalling. Orfeas Karavas, playing the third movement of Friedrich Seitz ’ s Violin Concerto in G No. 2, Op. 13, performed the Romantic period piece with polished articulation and dynamic contrast. Olivier Badzioch, the only finalist from Drake, performed Winter Wonderland on the piano, making an excellent recovery after a nervous start, and delivered a lively and energetic rendition of the piece. I enjoyed the opportunity to perform and compete with other finalists in front of the whole Lower School and thought that, despite the stress that accompanied it, it was a useful learning experience for all.
of the concert was from Jasper Shapton (7W) in Raleigh House, playing
Taylor Lai awarded first place by Mr Mayo. Kenneth Lai and George Ayres were awarded joint second
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