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.
Representatives of Queen Elizabeth’s School met with senior staff from contractors TJ Evers, architects Hollins and project manager Barkers Associates for the ceremony, which served to confirm the swift progress of the £3.5m project.
The ceremony was led by John Blundell, Site Manager for TJ Evers, who explained a little of the history of topping out ceremonies, which have been held for hundreds of years, usually marking the point at which a new building attains its maximum height. As on this occasion, topping out ceremonies often include an opportunity for those present to sign the uppermost beam, or its equivalent, thus providing a record of the occasion for posterity.
Director of Music Ruth Partington, who was among the guests at the ceremony, recently led a research process to choose the grand piano that will take pride of place in the recital hall. The School’s Foundation Trustees have agreed to pay for the selected Yamaha piano, valued at just under £75,000. A new Piano Fund aims to raise another £30,000 over the coming months to meet the associated costs of pianos and further equipment.”
His hour-long, richly illustrated, online talk focused on examples of improvisation by two of the jazz greats, Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis.
Mike was Head of Jazz Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music for 20 years, during which time he directed well over 100 concerts with the RNCM Big Band. He still teaches at the RNCM and has also taught at many jazz summer schools and been a consultant and composer for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM – a Music examinations board).
Congratulating the pair formally with Headmaster Neil Enright last term, Director of Music Ruth Partington paid tribute to colleagues who had helped them and expressed the hope that their achievement would be a foretaste of even more singing successes to come.
Eeshan explained how his audition had gone. “There were two senior members of the choir, including the conductor, who listened to me perform and then got me to complete a few exercises to test my ability. I performed an Italian song called Dolente immagine di Fille mia and got special commendation for singing in Italian.
Joel, who has been having singing lessons since the beginning of Year 8, also acknowledged Mr Bowden’s help. In his audition, he performed Where the Bee Sucks by the 18th-century British composer, Thomas Arne. “I feel like my singing has developed massively as a result of these lessons.”
Building on the success
Both venues were chosen because they were large enough to allow full social distancing.
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Boys and staff enjoyed tucking into a Christmas lunch with all the trimmings. Year 7 boys enjoyed an adapted version of the carol service, held this year at the School, instead of at the parish church.
In normal years, QE’s Service of Lessons and Carols takes place in St John the Baptist Church in Barnet, with a congregation including staff and all the Year 7 boys, as well as musicians and readers drawn from other year groups.
“This gave our Year 13 boys a chance to sing at St John’s, and our Year 7s got to see what the church is like – on video at least,” the Headmaster said. “Hearing the carols ringing out from the Main School Hall lent a wonderfully festive atmosphere to the School, and our Year 7s savoured the opportunity to become part of this well-loved QE tradition.”
The service also included performances of the popular traditional carols: Once in Royal David’s City; O Little Town of Bethlehem; O Come all ye Faithful, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing!
Earlier in the week, pupils relished their Christmas lunch, with the catering team pulling out all the stops to serve up a festive feast of roast turkey or wild mushroom filo pastry crown, with pigs-in-blankets, stuffing, carrots, Brussel sprouts, parsnips, cranberry jelly and gravy, followed by Christmas pudding or yule log.
Parents, pupils and staff have been donating non-perishable food items, clothing and blankets over recent weeks, and yesterday a group of Year 9 volunteers helped to load a record number of bags into a QE minibus, ready for delivery.