Congratulations to Ella Tyler for her participation in the Bromley Music Festival with the following results:
An amazing achievement for Ella. Congratulations from the BGS music department. Having the opportunity to perform and receive advice from industry professionals is always an amazing experience!
Mrs Casling, Music Department
On Tuesday 12th March, 12 students from our KS3 Orchestra visited St Stephen’s Primary School to rehearse in advance of our upcoming concert on Monday 18th March. We rehearsed ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ with around 20 students from the Primary School, with our musicians shadowing on each of the parts.
Aysu, Year 7, said that it was lots of fun to play with another group of instrumentalists and to work under the leadership of Rob Humphreys, Year 12, who has been conducting the orchestra there as part of his CAS IB portfolio.
We looked at little parts of the piece to rehearse these more as well as how to demonstrate a professional performance. We are looking forward to hosting St Stephen’s at our concert on Monday 18th March and to performing our piece together.
Mrs Goddard, Head of Music
On the 27th January 2024, the Music department hosted a ‘Jazz and Curry’ evening for the first time in 2 decades. We started the night off with Big Band, one of the three BGS Jazz Groups, as they played 5 pieces by a vast array of composers, like Charles Mingus and Fats Waller, with improvisational solos being seen throughout each piece by all the different instruments within the band. After Big Band’s first set finished, Junior Jazz went on stage to play their repertoire of many pieces as they impressed the crowd with their immense talent and superb improvisation abilities. Following the Junior Jazz group, we took a break as the guests and players sat down to eat their curry from the local curry house, The Jasmine, who were kind enough to provide a full buffet of Indian-based food. Whilst everyone was eating, a few players decided to play a set of more Jazz pieces to accompany the delicious assortment of food. After the break finished, it was time for the last of the three BGS Jazz Groups to play their pieces. The Improv Group played three pieces, showing not only their talent but their tremendous efforts as they played their pieces flawlessly, impressing not only the guests but everyone watching. To finish the night, Big Band played another set as they played the pieces masterfully, concluding a magnificent night of jazz with finesse.
Ethan Abbate, Year 12
Well done to all of our performers on this evening, and a huge thank you to Mr Laing for preparing the items with the bands. What a treat and I hope that we can make this a biannual thing!
Mrs Goddard, Head of Music
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Mia Nguyen, Year 10, was recently invited back to perform with the London Schools Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of this term at the Barbican. Some of you may remember she performed last year for the first time, but this year Mia was promoted to the first violins, a very prestigious opportunity!
The orchestra performed Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody and the magnificent Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz. It was truly amazing by all accounts, and so impressive that a young ensemble overall performed with such maturity and sensitivity whilst also being able to react as emerging professionals of their fields.
Mia's friends also came to support her performance, and were thoroughly impressed. They reported:
Mia performing with the LSSO, let alone at the Barbican Centre, makes us so proud of her; we were so amazed by the performance they gave us, and it was such a good experience. We were even more surprised to find out that she was one of the younger students there, considering she played at such a high standard. We hope to attend another one of her amazing performances.
Ayaka and Darina
Well done Mia on grasping such a wonderful opportunity, and we look forward to hearing more for you and our other music students!
Mrs Goddard, Head of Music
Paul Despabiladeras, Year 9 recently took the first diploma in Piano, which is a post-Grade 8 exam, normally taken by full-time music students after their first year at university, and was APPROVED, He used the board of London College of Music, and his qualification is called a DipLCM.
An amazing achievement.
Mrs Casling, Head of Music
Congratulations to Nathan Singleton, Year 11, for winning the Martin Dales Trophy in the Beckenham Music Festival 2021. Here is Nathan's account of what was required! Well done Nathan!
Mrs Casling, Head of Music
The Beckenham festival is an annual music festival which carries out a wide variety of performances and competitions with different types of musicians (e.g. choirs, woodwind players). The type of competition I entered is music versatility, which is recommended for people who play two or more instruments to a high level. The adjudicator marks the pieces you play/ sing and the person with the highest amount of marks wins the Martin Dales trophy (which I’ve managed to win three years consecutively now). This year, I played Nocturne in C# Minor by Chopin, and Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano by Malcolm Arnold.
Nathan Singleton, Year 11
