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No fewer than 13 different ensembles performed as the School’s musicians came together for QE’s first major in-person concert since December 2019.

The Christmas Concert in the Shearly Hall featured scores of instrumentalists and singers tackling a programme that, although based around a festive theme, was very eclectic in nature.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It really was a wonderful evening of very high-quality music, and performers and audience members all seemed to hugely enjoy being back together for the first time in two years. My congratulations go to our Director of Music, Ruth Partington, and her team on a splendid concert.

“There were many highlights, with the Jazz Band maintaining their customary high standards – including amazing saxophone solos! – and the Orchestra taking on some challenging works.

“The Indian Ensemble’s piece, Dhanashree Thillana, went down really well, as did the Guitar Ensemble’s rendition of Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train. The inclusion of such repertoire in the programme amply demonstrates the importance of making space for different genres and sounds, while also showing very clearly that performance music can be fun.”

Boys introduced some of the pieces, acting as hosts for the concert: for example, Year 13 Orchestra clarinettist Conor Parker-Delves explained the story of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, preparing the audience for the moment when the guillotine falls towards the end of the piece.

“Several of the ensembles were rehearsed by pupils – and judging by the performances, they did a great job,” Mr Enright added.

“The large numbers of participants in our junior ensembles, such as Junior Strings, was very noticeable: their involvement bodes well for the future.

“Such enthusiasm and, indeed, the success of this concert as a whole gives us strong momentum to take forward for the opening of our Music School, planned for next term. Of course, the new facility should itself further participation and excellence in performance music.”

The School Choir and Orchestra brought the evening to a traditional conclusion with the carols,  Once in Royal David’s City and Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.

Queen Elizabeth’s School marked Black History Month with a diverse range of special activities both inside and outside of the classroom that drew lessons from the past, while also saluting those building a path today towards a better future.

One undoubted highlight was the online assembly given to the Sixth Form by Roni Savage ­(pictured above) – engineering geologist, founder of a multi-million pound construction industry consultancy, multiple award-winner…and a QE mum.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We sought to provide lots of different opportunities during Black History Month to ensure that our boys could, in the words of a BHM slogan, ‘dig deeper, look closer, think bigger’, coming up with an array of innovative ideas. These ranged from our Lower School History Raiders group researching ancient Black kingdoms and civilisations, to Year 7 PE lessons promoting sports in which athletes have either faced racism or have changed the world due to their participation, such as basketball, boxercise and indoor athletics.

“I am especially grateful to Mrs Savage, who, as a Black woman working at a high level as an entrepreneur in construction, is a true pioneer in her industry, with an impressive list of achievements and accolades to her name. She has certainly proved people wrong who doubted her because of her race, gender and age.

“And she inspired our sixth-formers with her injunction to ‘stand up, stand out, stand tall’ and her insistence that ‘there are no limits to what you can achieve’ with hard work and talent.”

Mrs Savage, whose son, Jayden, is in Year 13, is the founder of Jomas Associates, a large engineering and environmental consultancy, and Policy Chair for Construction within the Federation of Small Businesses. She is a Fellow of both the Royal British Institute of Architects and the Institute of Civil Engineering, and is on the current UK Powerlist of Britain’s most influential people of African/Caribbean heritage.

Her message was that diversity is vital to the capacity, capability and sustainability of all sectors, but that to achieve it, the status quo, with its harmful stereotypes, must be challenged.

Here is a selection of the many activities and initiatives that took place at the School as part of this year’s Black History Month:

• A discussion in MedSoc (Medical Society) of the work of Malone Mukwende, who as a second-year medical student at St George’s, University of London, developed a book to help doctors diagnose skin rashes and diseases on black and brown skin, addressing decades of racial bias in medical education;
• The Year 9 Shakespeare Film Club watching Othello and discussing the racial issues in the play, as raised in a British Library article;
• Publication of a special Black History Month (and COP26) issue of the Economics department’s magazine, Econobethan;
• Cancellation of all Music rehearsals one lunchtime, with the pupil team from the Music Enrichment Society instead giving a presentation about Black musicians. Pictured, above, are boys giving a special performance ahead of the talk;
• Year 9 had a special Depicting Jesus Philosophy, Religion & Society (PRS) lesson, which focused on different representations of Jesus, including those from the Ethiopian Church and Rastafari traditions, and on the use of images of white Jesus for imperialist ends;
• Year 8 geographers started a new, permanent unit on Migration towards the end of October, with a first homework task linked to Black History Month.

Boys from Years 7–10 relished the opportunities offered to them during Enrichment Week 2021, when all four year groups were given a day off from their normal lesson timetables.

From the cerebral and scientific challenge of cryptography to the literary, emotional and rhetorical attractions of Shakespeare, the week featured a very diverse range of activities designed to be both stimulating and fun.

For Year 10, the brief was to work in groups to design and construct ‘wearable architecture’, using 6mm paper tubes.

Assistant Head (Pupil Progress) Sarah Westcott said: “The boys were asked to give consideration to form and structure. Many of the groups demonstrated good team-working skills, with some of them even managing to include moving parts.”

Year 10 were also involved in drama workshops that included performances of a heavily abridged version of Romeo and Juliet.

Year 7 enjoyed the chance to apply a little lateral thinking in an RAF cyber security challenge.  This STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) activity involved tackling a series of cryptography and coding tasks and helping a company retrieve its stolen data from cyber criminals. Working in teams of six, the boys competed against each other and against the clock, battling to be the first to unlock the stolen data.

The task helped inform them about ‘phishing’ and other techniques used by criminals to compromise their targets’ data.

Originally the day was to be led in person by RAF personnel, but because of Covid restrictions, the School managed it virtually, starting the day with a live stream through YouTube in which the boys were given an outline of their tasks and an overview of the importance of cyber security. Funded by the RAF, the event was run in collaboration with the Smallpeice Trust, an educational charity promoting careers in science and engineering to young people.

“We wanted to raise awareness of digital careers, whilst developing students’ problem-solving and research skills,” said Dr Westcott. “Students found it challenging to work to time and benefitted from the need to think creatively to solve problems whilst coordinating their team’s efforts.

“The event was intended to give an insight into the types of skills required for careers in cyber-forensics. The boys discovered that it isn’t all about coding – you must be a collaborative member of a team and keep a cool head under time pressure, too.”

In addition, Year 7 flexed their vocal cords in a singing workshop, while Years 8 and 9 took to the countryside on their respective sponsored walks.

Scores of the School’s young musicians battle it out today in a competitive Pianoathon Challenge being held to raise money to buy pianos for the new Music School.

Each of the School’s Houses has been challenged to provide an hour of sound, with small teams of musicians and soloists playing for up to three minutes each: the result should be six hours of non-stop music in the Main School Hall.

The event has been arranged as one of the special events taking place to celebrate tomorrow’s Founder’s Day.

Director of Music Ruth Partington said: “This is part of our last big push to ensure that our brilliant new Music School is equipped to the highest standards when it opens in the autumn. Thanks to the generosity of the School’s Foundation Trustees, we have already secured the purchase of a superb grand piano for our new recital hall, but that still leaves seven new practice rooms all needing a high-quality piano – and that is what we are raising money for today.

“If you haven’t already donated, please give now, sponsoring your House, or your son’s House, via our dedicated eQE Pianoathon page. This is a real first for QE and promises to be a thrilling event: let the playing commence!”

Parents and friends can watch the musical action unfold live in a special YouTube broadcast (above), which can also be viewed on the eQE page and via the Music department’s YouTube page.

Each House has entered small teams comprising up to five musicians – including at least one pianist – to play music of their choice. There is a visiting guest adjudicator, Mr Huw Jones, Director of Music at The John Lyon School in Harrow, who will be helping to pick the winners in the various categories, which cover team and solo performances (both for each year group and overall), also including a prize for the Best House Overall. Houses that raise large amounts of money will also have the opportunity to have one of the new pianos named after them.

Today’s musical menu chosen by the boys includes a rich range of genres and styles, and features instruments ranging from violins to electric guitars, and from oboes to tablas. Here is a small selection of the repertoire to be heard, House by House:

• Broughton: Canon in D, Pachelbel; Étude op 10 no. 12 ‘Revolutionary’, Chopin; Peppa Pig theme
• Harrisons’: Es war einmal, Grieg; Downton Abbey theme, John Lunn; Samba Nights, Proudler
• Leicester: Attack on Titan Opening Theme 1, Sawato; Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, arr. Sakamoto; I See Fire, Ed Sheeran
• Pearce: Sonatina in C major, Kuhlau; Opening Night Jazz, Martha Mier; Sonata No. 3, Prokofiev
• Stapylton: Romanze Op. 28, Schumann; Sonatina Movement 1, Dušek; Toccata in G minor
• Underne: Pink Lady, Pam Wedgwood; Prelude in C-sharp minor, Rachmaninoff; Your Song, Elton John.

The £3.5m-plus Music School, which is currently in the final stages of construction, received the go-ahead in 2019 after the Department for Education accepted the School’s £2.2m bid, which consisted of a £1.2m grant and £1m loan.

Like all major improvements at the School over the past two decades, the project is relying on the generous financial support of the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s and other benefactors. Pride of place in the building will go to the Yamaha CF6 grand piano in the recital hall, which was chosen by the Music Department after a week-long audition process. Valued at just under £75,000, it is being paid for by the School’s Foundation Trustees.

For those without an eQE account, donations can be made to each House’s total by clicking on the relevant name: Broughton; Harrisons’; Leicester; Pearce; Stapylton; and Underne.

The portentous ‘dun dun dun duuun’ opening notes of his 5th Symphony are recognised everywhere, but just what is it that accounts for the enduring popularity of Ludwig van Beethoven?

That is the question which Surya Bowyer, QE’s Head of Library Services, examines in the latest episode of The Queen’s Library Roundness podcast.

He drafted in some local expert help – Ruth Partington, the School’s Director of Music, and Caroline Grint, Music teacher – in his exploration of the significance of the iconic German pianist and composer in the musical canon.

“2020 marked the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in Bonn,” says Mr Bowyer. “Around the world – from London to Melbourne and Shanghai to Sao Paolo – events which had been planned over many months, and, indeed, years, in concert halls and music venues to celebrate his works, in that symbolic year, had to be cancelled.”

Apart from the Nokia ringtone, (Gran Vals by Francisco Tárrega) those opening four notes of ‘Beethoven’s 5th’ – which form the title of the podcast – are probably the best known musical “motif” of all among the general public. And this is attributable, not to concert-going necessarily, but to their ubiquitous use in advertising and films. Yet would this suffice to explain the exceptionally high regard in which Beethoven is still held?

Miss Partington and Miss Grint discuss Beethoven’s acknowledged legacy as the composer whose composition spanned the transition from the classical period to the romantic era, and question whether he was truly ground-breaking in the way he is often presented.

The podcast covers the difference expectations held of composers such as Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who were court composers, and Beethoven who, while receiving a stipend, had more freedom. They explore the effect this had in a number of ways, including the duration of his symphonies.

The discussion ranges over whether Beethoven was a musical genius, or a talented musician and composer who happened to be about at the right time, with a rising middle-class who could afford to attend music concerts and the emergence of music critics. It also touches on whether Beethoven would recognise his own work as it is played now on modern instruments.

“The way in which Beethoven and his music are written about leads us to listening to him using the terms that are ascribed to him,” says Miss Grint. “Because we expect universality, we find it, we read the meaning into it. Instrumental music is seen as having universality because it doesn’t tell a story using words, it’s more metaphysical.”

Miss Partington believes Beethoven’s continuing popularity lies in the powerful emotions he evokes. “I’m not a fan of working-out meaning,” she says. She believes there is a mystical element to music, and that it should not be pigeon-holed.

But whether a genius, or a man in the right place at the right time, there seems little doubt his legacy will endure, from the ‘low brow’ – car advertisements, for example – to the distinctly ‘high brow’, such as performances at top music venues, the three concluded.

• The Dun, dun, dun, duun episode of the Roundness podcast is available from the Library pages of the eQE online platform and from normal podcast providers, including Acast, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

With coronavirus restrictions this year putting paid to QE’s usual spring concert for some of its most advanced musicians, the School instead staged a special online Grade 8 and Diploma Festival with an expert external appraiser.

The event, which is now live on the Music department’s YouTube channel, featured 13 musicians, from Year 7 through to Year 12, playing in the School Hall.

Listening and watching online was Christopher Sparkhall, Director of Music at Canford School in Dorset, who gave the performers immediate feedback on their performances and then sent them longer, written feedback a few days later.

QE’s Director of Music, Ruth Partington, said: “We devised this festival because we wanted to give these accomplished young musicians the opportunity to practise performing in front of a knowledgeable and friendly stranger.

“It was very deliberately billed as a festival, not a competition: in normal years, the boys might have expected a warm round of applause from a live audience; instead, Mr Sparkhall gave them feedback that, while honest, was both generous and constructive.”

Mr Sparkhall, who was an Organ Scholar at Oxford, is an examiner for the ABRSM (the examination board of the Royal Schools of Music) and is on the senior examiners team as reviser for AQA GCSE Music. He sings with a semi-professional chamber choir, Sarum Voices.

The first half of the festival featured seven pianists, all of whom have either achieved Grade 8 and are now working towards their Diploma, or are working towards Grade 8. They played pieces by composers including Debussy, Grieg, Chopin and Rachmaninov. Shreyas Iyengar,  of Year 7, who is pictured, top, performed Passepied, written by 19th-century French Romantic composer Léo Delibes as part of his incidental music for the play, Le roi s’amuse, by Victor Hugo.

Following a short interval, the festival continued with musicians playing the viola, alto saxophone and cello, and with performances by two singers, Shivas Patel, of Year 12, and Arjun Patel, of Year 10.

After alto saxophonist Conor Parker-Delves had brought the festival to a conclusion with his rendition of Robert Planel’s Prélude et Saltarelle, Mr Sparkhall said: “Such accomplished playing! What a wonderful end to a brilliant afternoon.”

• Miss Partington recently led a research process to make the key choice of which grand piano should be purchased for the recital hall in QE’s new Music School, which is due to open in the autumn. During a week’s testing, piano teacher and accompanist Tadashi Imai played two instruments brought in on loan. The Music department then unanimously picked the Yamaha CF6 over the other instrument, a Bösendorfer 214VC. The School’s Foundation Trustees (Trustees of the Endowment Fund of the Schools of Queen Elizabeth I in Barnet) have agreed to pay for the piano, valued at just under £75,000. Expressing her gratitude for their contribution, Miss Partington said the aim was now to raise a further £30,000 through giving to QE’s new Piano Fund to cover costs for other pianos and equipment.