Abingdon News No.53

Two Abingdon ensembles took part in an inter-school charity concert in Oxford to raise funds for charities helping young people receive a decent education and life- changing opportunities both in Zambia ( Cecily’s Fund ) and displaced Syrian children in Lebanon ( Embrace the Middle East ). It was a great evening of varied music-making and a very heart-warming occasion. The senior piano quartet played Dvorak’s Eb major Piano Quartet and the senior brass quartet, performed Iveson’s arrangement of Frere Jacques and Web of Steele from Yorke’s The Shipbuilders’ Suite . A Singers’ Opera Masterclass International operatic singer, Richard Burkhard held his second masterclass which featured Verdi’s Rigoletto, Mozart’s Magic Flute, Offenbach’s Orpheus in Underworld and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The boys learnt an enormous amount, growing in confidence and improving exponentially. Care across Continents Charity Concert King Charles III A 24-strong cast of Abingdon and St Helen’s pupils performed OA, Mike Bartlett’s controversial history play, exploring the individuals beneath the crowns, the unwritten rules of our democracy and the conscience of Britain’s most famous family. A battle between government, media and monarchy was played out in full by a talented and committed cast of young actors. They had worked tirelessly since September to bring the world of the play to life and it was extremely well received by the audience. As ever, the hard work, skill and creativity of our excellent technical team was on full display. The set, lighting, costumes and props they created for the show looked fantastic! AFU welcomes back celebrated cinematographer It was a huge delight to welcome back the great Danish cinematographer (and original AFU tutor) Jonas Mortensen, who ran a workshop with senior AFU filmmakers on using our Swiss-made 1971 Bolex 16mm film camera. This wonderful piece of kit represents the ultimate test for student filmmakers who must learn, among many other things, how to load 100 foot rolls of film; wind the clockwork camera mechanism; measure focal length with a tape measure and use a light meter to find aperture settings before sending their footage to be developed with fingers firmly crossed that what they’ve shot will come out as they intended! Abingdon Drama 15