8 / 20
8
April 2017
Abingdon
Music
The 50 year partnership with the Ratsgymansium in Bielefeld was celebrated with a
symphony orchestra tour involving 45 boys from all years of the school, and, accompanied
by four members of staff. The Heads of both schools were joined by the Headmistress of
St Helen’s to hear the orchestra play the first concert of the tour to celebrate the Golden
Jubilee of the partnership established by Sir James Cobban in 1967. It was a very moving
and enjoyable occasion to mark this very special partnership.
The tour party went on to play two further equally successful concerts at Lemgo and
Detmold. Together with Mendelssohn and Vaughan Williams, the repertoire included
Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, a Burt Bacharach
Medley and a film score, Moross’ 1950s music for The Big Country. The tour party also
had time to visit the local sites including Sparrenburg Castle and Dr Oetker World, and
thoroughly enjoyed letting off steam with a game of football.
The Fitzroy Quartet
Golden Jubilee Tour to Bielefeld
Amongst the talented performers it
was exciting to hear three of our upper
sixth music students; the evening was
an ideal dry-run for their upcoming A2
recitals. The programme ranged from
Bach and Purcell, through Schubert, up
to Britten, and included Jazz and a song
from the musical
Oliver
!
The Intermediate Solo Instrumental
Competition showcased the talents of
16 of the School’s musicians from the
Third Year to Lower Sixth and featured
four families of instruments, woodwind,
brass, strings and piano, with music
performed from the 18th to the 20th
centuries. Difficult though it was to
separate the fine performances, the
adjudicator, Robert Secret gave the
winner’s cup to pianist Andy Zhang for
his lovely playing of Faure, second place
to violinist, Alex Glover, and third to
pianist, Andreas Lo.
The music department welcomed the Fitzroy Quartet who coached a
number of Abingdon’s chamber groups before giving a short performance.
Pro Corda national semi finalists
Following the
quarter-final heats
the 3rd Year String
Quartet won a place
in the national semi-
final round of the
Pro Corda Chamber
Music Festival.
Singers’ Platform