The Purcell School > News > Weekly Highlights > Weekly Highlights 5th February 2021

Weekly Highlights 5th February 2021

Welcome to the latest edition of Purcell’s Weekly Highlights!

Choral Conducting Masterclass with Toby Purser

Last week, as part of Purcell’s series of virtual Festival Masterclasses, Aural and Conducting teacher Irina Walters organised an outstanding online Choral Conducting event with renowned conductor and Head of Conducting at the Royal College of Music Toby Purser.

The masterclass was exceptionally well received by the participating students who praised Toby Purser for sharing not only his insight and expertise but his time and enthusiasm so generously. Thomas in Year 11 commented that it made him better appreciate that ‘the job of a conductor is actually very complicated and more intense than I previously thought’ and Rebecca in Year 9 added that the experience reinforced that conducting is ‘an important skill, increasing aural abilities and coordination between the hands, which I think is important for all musicians’.

Such was the impact of the masterclass, that two students provided full accounts of the event to share.

Phoebe (Year 9)

‘On Wednesday [27th January 2021] Mrs Walters’s conducting students had the great honour in attending a wonderful virtual masterclass with British conductor Toby Purser, Head of Conducting at The Royal College of Music. Purser has studied with some of the greatest conducting pedagogues of all time, including the legendary Ilya Musin and we were all very excited to meet him. We each had chosen, researched and prepared a piece of choral music to conduct online to then receive feedback on where and how we could improve. Purser was extremely generous in his time and spirit, working with each one of us in turn and sharing such valuable advice in ways to build our musicianship to reach the highest integrity as musicians. He stressed the importance of studying and preparing the score well in advance of a first rehearsal and to build aural awareness, explore interpretation, think of acoustics and every detail so that once in a rehearsal you could be really brave and honest about the ideas that you want to portray. Conducting compositions from César Franck to Rachmaninov, Purser gave each student the most precise and wonderful points which included advice on being very disciplined and economical with the left hand and to avoid both hands moving in parallel, every movement having a purpose and meaning whilst also keeping the attention of the choir. Purser also spoke of his happiest moments as a conductor and it was such a privilege to learn so much about his philosophy behind music and conducting, all extremely valuable advice for any musician.

On behalf of The Purcell School, Mrs Walters and all the conducting students I would like to thank Toby Purser for our wonderful masterclass.’

Sam (Year 11)

‘Last week, we were fortunate enough to have a conducting masterclass with the renowned British conductor, Toby Purser. 7 of our students conducted pieces of choral repertoire including David Willcocks – Resonemus Laudibus, Cesar Franck – Panis Angelicus, Sergei Rachmaninov – Spring Waters and more. The students conducted brilliantly and Mr Purser was very pleased. He offered extremely helpful and interesting advice to our young conductors. We sincerely hope that Mr Purser can come again to the school in order to give more conducting masterclasses in the future.’

Our sincere thanks to Toby Purser and Irina Walters for this making this invaluable teaching event possible.

Woodwind Masterclass Festival

This week the Senior Woodwinds were thrilled to hear from freelance clarinetist Emma Canavan about life as a freelance musician. Emma has played in London and around the UK with all the major orchestras: the London Symphony Orchestra; the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English National Opera, and film session studio work. In addition, she has played in many chamber ensembles and solo recitals. Her talk was both entertaining and informative, and gave great insight into the workings of the profession and how to embark into that world with confidence, determination and enthusiasm. The masterclass resonated strongly with the Senior Woodwind students who shared the following reflections:

‘Good etiquette is an essential part of orchestral playing, yet is something not usually taught. Learning about it today was hugely helpful and is something we can take forward with us to the next stage’.’

‘I enjoyed listening to Emma’s experience in the music industry, all her tips and tricks. Many of them I will keep in the back of my mind for the future’.’

‘What I really took away from the lesson was that it’s not enough to practice, you need to put yourself out there and to constantly push yourself out of your comfort zone’.’

‘I absolutely loved the class on Monday – I thought it really gave all of us an insight into the orchestral profession and the main things I learnt were: that it’s important to be versatile as a player, as different orchestras will play in different ways and you have to be able to listen and adapt. I also learnt that patience is key – and not everyone will get all the gigs at the same time so just keep working hard and enjoy making music, as our time will come when we are ready’.’

‘Also to make the most of every opportunity and every lesson, as the more we learn the more we can improve, especially when we are learning from the best players who have experienced or are experiencing playing in orchestras now’.’

Our thanks to Emma Canavan for her invaluable career insight, and to Purcell’s Head of Woodwind Joy Farrall for organising the event.

Distance Learning Homework Heroes; Science Department

Purcell Science teacher Svetlana Emelianova would like to recognise the hard work, perseverance, good organisation and great participation of some of our amazing students studying KS3 Science, GCSE Physics and A-level Biology in online lessons. Svetlana commented that some of these students are ‘bridging serious gaps in geography with several hours difference between the UK and their home country’ and ‘are the source of inspiration for all of us in such a difficult period of the history of humanity’.

Year 8: Suna, Kaelan, Malena and Isaac

Year 9: Cole, Polina, Rebecca, Alex, Phoebe and Adrian

Year 10: Gabriella, Dominic-Lucian, Ashton, Mina, Chloe, Da In, Ruize, Louis, Tifany, Antonia and Amanda

Year 11: Henrietta, Jennifer, Ozel, Madeline, Shlomo, Gabriella, Ted and Thomas

Year 12: Jenny and Philip

Year 13: Anya and Dana

Mica Levi

Late last year, alumni, composer and multi-instrumentalist Mica Levi self-released their first official solo album, Ruff Dog, and has last week followed up with an unexpected second album. Blue Alibi features collaborations with Jonatan Leandoer (Yung Lean), Coby Sey, Relax Kevin, and Brother May. Blue Alibi is available to stream on all major platforms and can be purchased via Bandcamp.

Anne Denholm

Alumna and harpist Anne Denholm, together with contemporary ensemble The Hermes Experiment of which she is a member, gave an innovative and uplifting debut recital at Wigmore Hall on 26th January 2021. With a range of pieces as eclectic as their line up – harp, soprano, double bass and clarinet – the quartet performed an array of works, from Lili Boulanger’s ‘Reflets’ to composer and visual artist Oliver Leith’s ‘Uh Huh Yea’, written for the quartet in 2019. The full performance is available through Wigmore Hall’s live stream platform here.

Yiruma

Alumnus, renowned pianist and composer Yiruma has written and recorded the theme tune for the Galaxy S21 series, with the intention of giving users a sense of comfort and familiarity during this time of pandemic. The piece entitled ‘Over the Horizon’ is available on the Samsung Newsroom here, alongside a ‘Making Of’ video.