It was a huge pleasure to welcome the representatives from Bournville Junior School, Brownmead Primary Academy, Elms Farm Primary, Hillstone School, Hallmoor and the Oval schools.
A special thank you to Keith Farr who led the inspirational workshop about music composition through myths and folk tales. We hope that it will be a great stimulus for all involved.
On Friday, 12 November, the first performance was given of Fourth Christopher Churcher’s Scherzo for oboe, two bassoons and contra-bassoon. The performers were Margaret Cookhorn, principal contra-bassoonist of the CBSO, Yash Suribhatla, Ben Woodward, and Christopher himself.
Huge thanks to Simon de Souza (the brass quintet Chaconne Brass), Margaret Cookhorn (principal contra bassoonist at CBSO) and Richard Jenkinson (The Dante String Quartet) for treating our Year 7 boys to a variety of music on Friday.
A special mention to our pupil Christopher who performed his own composition with Margaret Cookhorn (CBSO) and fellow KES musicians Ben and Yash.
Our thanks to Mr. Ash for his lovely photographs. The whole gallery may be viewed here.
Thursday 18th October 2018 at 13.10
Ruddock Performing Arts Centre
Charlotte Howdle – violin
Jacob Rowley – guitar
Naomi Bazlov – piano
The Orient Quartet (Ivy Lau, violin; Zoe Yap, violin; Junias Wong, viola; Ami Chen, ‘cello)
works by Franck, Villa-Lobos, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff.
This recital is presented jointly with King Edward VI High School for Girls
New on this ‘blog, ‘Exploring music through stories — a composition project’.
Produced in partnership with seven primary, preparatory, and special schools, this proposes and will explore a model for the teaching of composition in primary schools.
A four-month-long project will run throughout Birmingham learning to a performance-day in February 2019. The schools will come together and share the stage with KES/KEHS Symphony Orchestra; our compositions sharing a programme with works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev.
You can read more under the ‘Peter and the wolf‘ menu, at the top of this page.
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Tuesday, 9 October 2018 at 18.30
Ruddock Performing Arts Centre
Jessie Zhao, piano
Scarlett Brunning, voice
Christopher Churcher, piano
Naina Reddy, viola
Rohit Kale, cello
Sanjana Sudeshkumar, voice
Cathy Ge, piano
works by Chopin, Schubert, Purcell, Edwin Roxburgh, Vaughan Williams,
Saint-Saens, Schumann, Mozart, Beethoven.
This concert is presented jointly with King Edward VI High School for Girls
Tuesday, 2 October 2018 at 18.30
Ruddock Performing Arts Centre
Jennifer Liu, violin; YingQi Han, piano;
Nehemiah Kong, viola;Angie Qiao, piano;
Yash Suribhatla, piano; Priya Rajput, guitar;
Lucia Kirchhof, voice.
works by Pergolesi, Brahms, Schubert, Bruch, Kalliwag, Rachmaninov and Hindemith.
This concert is presented jointly with King Edward VI High School for Girls
Thursday, 27 September 2018 at 1310
Ruddock Performing Arts Centre
Charlotte Chapman, oboe
Arun Ramanathan, voice
Jessica Tedd, violin
Nathan Cornish, trombone
works by Debussy, Britten, Caccini, Handel, Tartini, Bloch and Serocki.
This recital is presented jointly with King Edward VI High School for Girls
Thursday 21 June 2018 at 13.10
Ruddock Performing Arts Centre
Bryan Chang, piano
Paradise Trio: Gabriel Wong, violin; Eugene Toso, cello; Bryan Chang, piano
works by Chopin, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Piazzola
This recital is presented jointly with King Edward VI High School for Girls
Thursday 14 June 2018 at 13.10
Ruddock Performing Arts Centre
Gabriel Wong, violin
Sam Howorth, piano
Rosy Heneghan, voice
works by Reger, Schubert, Scarlatti, Liszt, Gurney and Gounod
This recital is presented jointly with King Edward VI High School for Girls
Tuesday 12 June 2018 at 18.30
Ruddock Performing Arts Centre
Shirom Aggarwal, saxophone
Beatrice Beardmore, cello
Ami Chen, cello
YingQi Han, piano
Michael Luo, piano
Naina Reddy, voice
Zoe Yap, violin
Piano Trio:
Ivy Lau, piano; Bronagh Lee, violin; Ami Chen, cello.
This concert is presented jointly with King Edward VI High School for Girls
The Schools Together Group has just published the first in a series of publications on ‘Partnerships in Practice,’ edited by Tom Arbuthnott with Peter Hatch. This focuses on music partnerships, and aims to set out a series of case studies, ranging from the simple to the complex, that might help Directors of Music and Partnership Co-ordinators in state and independent schools to learn from better practice in devising music partnership projects.
Two projects based at King Edward’s School and King Edward’s High School for Girls are included, Romany Wood, and the swing band tours.
You can read about Romany Wood below:
King Edward’s Music Department, Partnership Work: Schools together — Romany Wood
The whole publication is posted at:
https://www.schoolstogether.org/publications/
There is still time to enjoy Lauren Zhang’s triumph in BBC Young Musician 2018. The final is available on the BBC’s iPlayer, which you can visit by clicking on this link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b2xv8b/bbc-young-musician-2018-final
We are very proud to announce that Lauren Zhang, a pianist from KEHS, is a finalist in BBC Young Musician 2018. She has elected to play Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto, and will perform with the CBSO conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.
You can see the final on BBC4 television at 1900 on Sunday, 13 May and hear it on BBC Radio 3.
We wish her well in this great adventure.
You can read more about the finalists in BBC Young Musician at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44086034
Inside Music
Saturday, 12 May at 1300 on BBC Radio 3
A new series in which each week a musician reveals a selection of music – from the inside.
Today, bassoonist and principal contrabassoonist of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and woodwind tutor at King Edward’s School, Margaret Cookhorn shares her excitement about a rare experience – playing the contrabassoon in chamber music by Mozart. She also analyses how Richard Strauss brings exotic flavours to the orchestra in his take on Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils, and explains her fascination for patterns in the music of Benjamin Britten. Margaret’s choices range from a miniature by Elgar played by violinist Nigel Kennedy to part of Messiaen’s massive Turangalila Symphony, plus vocal acrobatics from Ella Fitzgerald and Bobby McFerrin.
At 2 o’clock Margaret introduces her Must Listen piece – something she thinks everyone should hear at least once in their life – as she says: “it contains one of the most exciting and rhythmic endings to a symphony ever written”.
You can read more at the programme by visiting:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b2jdyd
Our thanks to Mr. Ash for the photographs.
The concert is presented jointly with King Edward VI High School for Girls
