GCSE musicians enjoy the music

On Monday 30th January all KS4 GCSE Music students went to watch members of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra perform some of the pieces which they study as part of their course. They were treated to performances of J.S Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 5 featuring a guest flautist from St Bede’s School followed by Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major which Year 11 music students are currently studying. The repertoire then moved into the twentieth century with a performance of William Goodchild’s Land of Plenty which is a piece of music written for a BBC wildlife series called Africa’s Giant Killers. The orchestra performed the piece live with the film footage showing behind them to give the piece a real sense of atmosphere and context. The next piece moved into the realms of musical theatre with a performance of the famous Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked. This featured a solo vocalist from Clevedon School who did a fantastic job in delivering this high energy and technically challenging piece.

The second half of the concert was a live composition workshop. Schools had been asked to submit melodies composed by students in advance of the concert. Two melodies were chosen to be used in the composition; one from Chipping Sodbury School and one from St Katherine’s School! Well done to Tyler Kingscott (10S) for having his melody selected. It was amazing to hear how the composer (Patrick Bailey, associate musician at the BSO) had developed the two melodies into a fully formed piece of music and it was a proud moment for Tyler when he got a huge round of applause at the end!

Our students really enjoyed it and were a pleasure to take out of school. One of them turned to me at the end and said: ‘I have a new found appreciation for classical music’. 

Miss Adams, Head of Music