St Edward's Chronicle October 2016

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ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

FOCUS ON MUSIC

Was it easy to decide what to do as a career? By the middle of my university years, I felt I had two options: theatre or teaching. I picked the latter because it seemed to offer the greatest variety. In theatre, you can play the same material every night for months. I completed a PGCE and took up my first teaching post at Uppingham where I stayed for 12 years. I joined St Edward’s in 2009. What attracted you to St Edward’s? The breadth of the education on offer and the range of musical activities: music should be part of everyone’s life. The city was a big attraction - there are wonderful venues, and countless world-class performances. How have things changed since you arrived? There has always been excellent music at Teddies, but it hasn’t always had a high enough profile in the outside world. All musicians love the pressure and excitement of big occasions. Within my first two years, we had taken part in the BBC Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall and joined the English Chamber Orchestra for a performance at London’s Cadogan Hall; thinking big and connecting with the wider musical landscape was a reasonably new idea. What have been the highlights of the past seven years? Inevitably, the big occasions like the ones I’ve just mentioned: St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall and our two Evensongs at St Paul’s Cathedral. I’ve been immensely proud of our musicals - Into theWoods and West Side Story in particular. We now have a proper rock, pop and tech scene so our annual Battle of the Bands is hotly contested and increasingly professional. We’re also starting to offer proper orchestral concerts with programmes of overtures, concertos and symphonies. What opportunities will the new Music School open up? It will allow us to grow and develop with confidence over the next 10 – 20 years. The only thing limiting our musical ambition has been the space available for rehearsals and teaching. The Ferguson Music School was ahead of its time in the 1960s, but every single day of the past seven years has begun

from cathedral choir schools, or from schools with major music departments. The unique thing is that people come here because they don’t want to over-specialise; they want to be outstanding musicians, but they also want to achieve on the academic front, or on the rugby pitch or netball court. In our present Upper Sixth, four pupils are looking at Oxbridge choral awards, and two are looking at music college places – a good indication of the ambition of our senior musicians. What music do you listen to in your spare time? I listen to everything. I particularly enjoy 20th- and 21st-century choral and orchestral stuff and I love modern composers like James Macmillan and Nico Muhly. I still enjoy musicals in the West End and on Broadway – and I always look out for touring jazz bebop. The last gig I went to was Muse at the Emirates Stadium. Finally, what does the future hold? The new Music School sets the scene for at least a decade of growth and development. Without question, it will allow us to up our game. We now have a real opportunity to gain a national reputation for music, just as The North Wall has allowed us to do with drama, dance and art. The Music School completes the School’s ‘cultural quarter’ on South Parade and is a very exciting addition to our facilities.

with logistics issues: how and where can we fit everything in? With the extraordinary success of The North Wall, the arts have been exceptionally strong over the past decade. Music has been growing at the same pace but desperately needed room in which Dedicated music classrooms for the first time - equipped with the very latest audio and video equipment; I’ve been teaching in my office! Departmental space is centred around a proper Recital Room for rehearsals, regular events such as Friday at Five and chamber concerts. A carefully commissioned music tech studio will house a rock room and vocal recording booth, and will enable us to take an audio feed from the Recital Room. A new Sixth Form Music Library, with modern work stations, will make it far easier for pupils to understand the possibilities of further academic music study. Most importantly, the Music School will triple the number of practice rooms overnight. If we want our pupils to be more ambitious we must make it as easy and pleasant as possible for them to practise. Even with our cramped conditions, ten Grade 8s have been achieved this year, with two or three pupils considering a Diploma. With our growing reputation locally, we have a good number of prep school pupils to develop and thrive. What will it feature?

Casper Sunley

The ‘dream team’ behind the 2015 production of Fame! – Choreographer Dennis Victory; Producer and Head of Dance, Lisa Elkins; Co-Producer Beth Steer; and Director of Music, Alex Tester