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

European Youth Brass Band Championships

Year 10 trumpeter Rhys and Year 9 trombonist Skye recently competed as members of the Elland Silver Youth Band at the European Youth Brass Band Championships, held at the Malmö Live concert hall in Malmö, Sweden. Seven bands from around Europe were invited to perform in the competition and all were required to perform a 20 minute programme of music, including the set work and a soloist. The set work this year was Turning Torso, a new piece by Magnus Hylander which was commissioned specially for the event and is named after a famous futuristic building close to the concert hall in Malmö. Rhys, Skye and their fellow members of the band were thrilled to be awarded third place! A huge well done from all at Purcell.
 

Aldeburgh Festival Podcast

Year 13 composition student Laila has been commissioned to write the opening music for the Aldeburgh Festival’s podcast. The podcast, presented by BBC Radio 3’s Tom McKinney, allows listeners to get up close with the composers and featured artists taking part in the Festival. We will be sure to share the podcast as soon as it is available. Congratulations, Laila.
 

Purcell Student to attend Prestigious Global Health Conference

We were thrilled to hear earlier this week that Year 12 student Lindsey has been accepted onto the Global Health Leaders Conference (GHLC) at Johns Hopkins University. The course, which takes place during the summer holidays, is a leading health education programme for secondary school students in which attendees learn about issues in global health, public health and medicine directly from world leaders in these fields.

Selection onto the course is incredibly competitive. This year alone the GHLC received a record number of applications, with only 9.5% being accepted, making Lindsey’s place on the conference all the more commendable.

We are all incredibly proud of Lindsey and hope she enjoys this fantastic opportunity.
 

Alumna Wins International Piano Competition

Our congratulations to pianist and alumna Helen Meng who has triumphed in the Henri Kowalski Dinan Bretagne International Piano Competition, taking the Grand Prize. Helen studied at Purcell under Head of Keyboard, William Fong.
 

Concerts Week in Review

This week saw Purcell students perform a fantastic concert as part of the Chiltern Arts Festival at St. Mary’s Church, Henley-on-Thames, while here at School we were treated to a brilliantly received Middle School Concert and three Lunchtime Concerts.

Well done to all performers, composers and members of the string orchestra for their beautiful playing: Hana, Antonia, James, Henrietta, Goulwenna, Shlomo, Jessica, Francisca, Jacqueline, Tori, Yu-Wei, Ruize, Dexter, Mina, Minsuk, Theadora, Tifany, Ivanna, Ella, Emma, Oscar, Louis, Johnathan, Chloe, Kaelan, Luca, Nathaniel, Ekaterina, Arunima, Teresa, Sonya, Malena, Celeste, Yulin, Hannah, Ali, Natalie, Yoko, Aaron, Zev and Ciara.