Musical Extravaganza over Easter!

Some of our talented music scholars have been spending the Easter holidays enjoying the thrill of music on a grand scale as their musical successes brought them some wonderful opportunities!

Alice (Year 8) completed her very first National Children’s Orchestra (NCO) course playing her Grade 8 bassoon with musicians a year older than herself in the Main Orchestra and delivering a musical programme themed around Fire and Water. Highlights included Debbie Wiseman’s ‘Blue Whale’ from CBSO 2020 commission Carnival of the Endangered Animals and Hannah Kendall’s ‘Spark Catchers’, which Chineke premiered at the Proms in 2017 and has since been performed worldwide; Igor Stravinksy’s ‘Firebird’; Claude Debussy’s ‘La Cathedrale Engloutie’; Bedrich Smetana’s ‘Vltava’ and Arturo Marquez’ ‘Congo del Fuego’.

Commenting prior to the players’ performances, Catherine Arlidge, Artistic and Educational Director of the NCO, reflected, “Rehearsing and performing the most ambitious and varied repertoire, the 300 exceptional young musicians of the National Orchestras will be immersed in the skill and joy of orchestral playing. How they help us to shape their learning and show us what a difference they can make to the world is one of the great joys of NCO.”

Alice, whose previous experience of NCO was limited to just one under 11s course, was delighted to spend a week’s residential boarding and playing with her fellow performers. “It was really nice getting to know people who liked music as much as I did.” reflected Alice. “All the people there were really nice and the staff were very supportive because they knew it was really hard. I think I’ve improved technically and also the way the piece actually sounds because I played for such a long time over the week. My favourite piece was The Firebird which was really, really nice and I had a solo in that one which was really cool. Like NCO, music at Leighton Park is really good because it does things for each level of music and so everyone can have a chance, and it’s really fun.”

Other Easter successes included Esther’s (Year 11) acceptance by the English Schools’ Orchestra for her superb skills on the violin. “What an opportunity for her and our other Music scholars, Leonie (Year 8, violin) and Rebecca (Year 10,  bassoon) who are also in ESO and who will be playing The Rite of Spring, amongst other incredible pieces, during the October half term!” enthused Leighton Park’s Director of Music, Rosemary Scales.