School_Matters_Issue_35

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SCHOLA CANTORUM AT THE BARNES MUSIC FESTIVAL A select group from the Schola Cantorum ventured out in the community to participate in the Barnes Music Festival, through singing a service at St Michael and All Angels, Barnes. This beautiful church is one in which IPS has been fortunate enough to hold its annual carol services in recent years. A healthy congregation enjoyed the service, which included Wohlberg’s Yiheyu Leratson as an anthem. The Mass setting was the Mass for Prague, which regular readers will remember from the IPS Singers’ 2019 tour to that city. The music weaves in a number of pertinent tunes, most notably the IPS School Song in the Gloria. The pupils did a spectacular job and received an excellent response from those listening, which included friends and families from IPS.

Rodelia Weng, S7

S7 PERFORMERS’ PLATFORM

Following the national relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions, we were thrilled to be able to invite a live audience of parents to a Senior 7 Performers’ Platform.

Mirroring a similar event held early in the academic year, this concert saw our youngest, freshest year group take to the stage. Some pupils were by now seasoned pros, whilst others were making their IPS debut on an instrument which they had only been playing for a few months! Music Scholar, Zephany Coleman opened the batting - the first of three appearances in the concert - with a cello solo. An eclectic array of performances followed, with genres ranging from Jazz to Classical to Rock and back again. Special mention goes to Rodelia Weng for a ravishing performance of the second movement from Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique. Rodelia impressed with her mature phrasing and impeccable technique. The evening was rounded out by the Senior 7 Choir’s performances of Colours of the Wind and an Adele mash-up. Mr James Bartlett, Director of Music

Zephany Coleman, S7

St Michael and All Angels

BERKELEY ENSEMBLE CONCERT The Berkeley Ensemble, IPS’s Ensemble-in-Residence, returned to the Theatre to workshop and perform the Senior 10 IGCSE Music cohort’s Classical Compositions. This year, most of the compositions were written using variation form: pupils wrote a short theme which was then repeated numerous times but varied using different compositional techniques. These techniques included: melodic transformation (e.g., inversion, retrograde); changing the time signature (e.g., to 6/8 or even the irregular 7/8); and exploring contrasting colours and textures with different orchestrations. It was highly satisfying to hear the level of craft which had gone into the pupils’ pieces using variation techniques and many of the variations were impressively advanced for IGCSE level. Unusually, the concert also featured several solo performances from IPS Music Scholars accompanied by the Berkeley Ensemble. These solo performances would normally have taken place as part of the

Sutherland Concert but, for various reasons, were postponed. The Berkeley Ensemble’s arrangements for the accompaniments were characteristically sensitive and the playing was top-class throughout. It was a highly successful evening and many congratulations to the following pupil composers: India Cousins, Daisy Da Costa, Luca Dean-Taubert, Nuria Dhumale, Joseph Ellis, Darcey Rogers, Deniz Yilmazkaya, Sally Bowron, Mark Li, Pippa Maby, Grace Oldfield, Luca Richards, Lottie Sanderson and Hayden White. And to the performers: Thomas Boyle, Veronica Boyle, Edie Clemo Gibbins, Max Eastland Park and Claudia Murray Cors.

Claudia Murray Cors, UVI