Welcome to the latest edition of Purcell’s Weekly Highlights!
Young Percussion Composer of the Year
We were thrilled to hear earlier this week that Year 13 percussionist Lewis Isaacs had won the 2021 Young Percussion Composer of the Year Award with his quartet, Askew. Lewis’ winning piece will now be performed and recorded by PERC’M and the Royal College of Music quartet, and published by Southern Percussion. It is an enormous accomplishment, and all at Purcell are incredibly proud of him.
Year 6 Playwrights
Last week the Juniors enjoyed acting out some of their original play scripts on Purcell’s latest addition – a new outdoor stage.
The plays were based on Greek mythology, and in particular the story of Perseus and Medusa. Working collaboratively, the Year 6 students wrote and performed their scripts to one another. After almost a full academic year of necessary restrictions, Head of Juniors Deborah Harris commented that ‘Year 6 loved being able to finally work together in small groups and perform to each other on the fantastic new outdoor stage area’.
Maths Games
Not content with performing their own works of fiction, the Juniors also took on some tricky mathematical challenges this week. In order to practice their arithmetic in a fun way, they each devised their own game. Luca (Year 6) made the fantastic music themed maths game shown below.
A busy week all round for Purcell Juniors!
Artwork of the Week
This week’s highlight from the Art Studio is from Angelica (Year 9) who has made this fabulously bold and colourful painting.
The Bromsgrove Young Musicians Platform
In addition to the feature in last week’s edition of the Weekly Highlights (11th June) about student success in the recent Bromsgrove Young Musicians Platform competition, we were delighted to hear that some of our alumni also share in this success.
Flautist and alumna Sofiia Matviienko triumphed as the competition’s Overall Winner, and alumnus and pianist Nikita Lukinov was awarded Runner Up. In further complement, Sofiia was accompanied in her winning performance by pianist and alumnus Nicholas Oliver.
Two tremendous achievements! We are thrilled for Sofiia and Nikita.
The Times Breakthrough Award 2021 Nominee
Pianist and alumna Mishka Rushdie Momen has been announced the classical music nominee for The Times Breakthrough Award 2021. As part of the nomination, she will be featured on the new series of the South Bank Show on Sky Arts on the 8th July at 9pm.
Our congratulations to Mishka. We wish her every success.
The Verbier Festival, Switzerland
Pianists and alumni Nikita Lukinov and Alim Beisembayev have been invited to take part in this summer’s Verbier Festival in Switzerland. The festival is an annual international music event in which audiences witness great masters and young artists from all over the world in action at more than 100 masterclasses, rehearsals and performances. Both Nikita and Alim were Verbier Festival Academy students, known to set the gold standard for training emerging soloists, and it is indicative of their talent that they have been invited to take part in this important musical event.
