Marvellous Musicians!

Music is a real strength of Leighton Park life with half our current students studying at least one instrument with one of our 27 peripatetic music teachers. Two of our talented musicians are pleased to have been recognised by national orchestras and are looking forward to enjoying musical experiences during the upcoming Long Leave.

Esther (Lower Sixth) plays the violin and is excited to be joining the English National Orchestra as second violin for five days during half term, culminating in a concert in the celebrated Cadogan Hall. “I am super excited to play the music, as the programme is really exciting” enthused Esther, “We’re playing Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’, Elgar’s ‘In the South’ and Rachmaninoff’s ‘Rhapsody on a theme of Paganin’. I think it will develop my skills as an orchestral player. I am also really looking forward to meeting new people who are passionate about music.”

It will be Esther’s first foray into the English National Orchestra having completed the selection process last academic year. “We had to fill in a form to apply, where we talked about our orchestral experience and musical qualifications. I wrote about leading the school orchestra and also about playing in other orchestras outside of school, as well as my violin grades. There were no auditions.”

Alice, who is joining the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) for Long Leave with her bassoon, was not so lucky and faced a performance based selection panel. Alice explained, “It was a two round selection process with a video submission first followed by a second round in London for a whole day. I had to play excerpts and pieces prepared in advance and performed in small groups. There were three of us playing together and two people assessing us. It was the woodwind day so there were lots of bassoonists there who were all really good!”

Alice had played in the School Orchestra and Woodwind Ensemble throughout her time at Leighton Park and, like Esther, is a Music Scholar. She is delighted to be part of the NYO for a limited period which she can’t officially join yet due to her age. “I’m too young to be fully in the National Youth Orchestra as I’m only 13 but I am going to be in their concert and on a week long course in half term. I’m pretty happy; I really wasn’t expecting to get in!” she grinned.

Anyone considering joining Leighton Park as a Music Scholar may like to be aware that the deadline for Scholarship Applications is Friday 18th November. For more details, please see our website.