A musical afternoon for the Shells of King Edward’s School.

by Music at King Edward's School, Birmingham

Music at King Edward's School, Birmingham: Tom Redmond working with our Shells

Music at King Edward's School, Birmingham: Margaret Cookhorn working with our Shells

Friday, 3 November 2017
Ruddock Performing Arts Centre

Adam Romer, viola
Margaret Cookhorn, bassoon and contra-bassoon
Tom Redmond, horn

As a musician, I was delighted to find out that representatives of the CBSO would be coming to see us! When I was younger, I saw people from the CBSO on YouTube and they helped me massively with improving as a bassoonist. I enjoyed seeing the viola, the French horn and the bassoon and finding more about each of the instruments. I particularly enjoyed the bassoon duet as well as the tunes that we all knew on the French horn and some amazing pieces on the viola that had a lot of emotions – one moment  happy, the next sad. It was great to explore how the French horn turned from a hunter’s horn to something as complicated as it is now and how the colour impacts the sound, how the bassoon and the contrabassoon can go really low and quite high as well and also how the viola can be plucked and bowed. I also learnt how all instruments make their sound: vibration, and how they make it, from reeds to bows to mouth buzzes. It was a really interesting and hard to beat Friday afternoon activity!

Ben Woodward (Shell)

Music at King Edward's School, Birmingham