AN44

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