On Monday evening, the Brass and Percussion Departments joined forces to deliver a fabulous evening of music. With performances of music ranging from trumpet trios, quintets, and dectet, an appreciative audience witnessed the burgeoning growth of brass playing at The Purcell School. Interspersed between brass items were solos from percussionists Joshua (Year 13), Hannah (Year 9), and Anthony (Year 8), all of whom played highly memorable and contrasting works for multi-percussion, solo vibraphone, and solo timpani, respectively.
Huge congratulations to the brass and percussion students, and special thanks to those in the Upper Sixth who will be moving on to bigger things, to Practice Supervisor Albert Owen for his valuable input, and to guest performers Freddie (Year 13, drums) and Zaki (Year 13, bass). The Brass and Percussion Departments are looking forward to building on this year’s successes in the new academic year.
Congratulations to all the students!
Impulse Outreach in Norfolk
Last weekend, Purcell’s award-winning IMPULSE outreach group returned to Norfolk to run an exciting series of community concerts and primary school workshops in partnership with Norfolk Music Hub.
The students who made up this year’s IMPULSE group were incredibly well received. Of one particular performance at Fulmodeston Church, two audience members commented that ‘the enthusiasm, rapport and dynamic music were so joyous. A great treat for a full village church . . . what a summer delight’. Roy and Hilary Murray
A huge well done to this year’s IMPULSE cohort for giving your time so willingly, and a special thank you to Head of Composition Alison Cox for making the outreach weekend the success it was.
Photographs from the Chiltern Arts Festival
On Saturday 13th May, Purcell students performed at Henley-on-Thames as part of the Chiltern Arts Festival with critically acclaimed tenor James Gilchrist and BBC Young Musician of the Year Finalist 2022 Jaren Ziegler. The event, which saw Chloe (Year 13) masterfully take the french horn solo and Director of Music Paul Hoskins conduct, was nothing short of tremendous! For those who were unable to attend, we are delighted to be able to share here the festival’s official photography, courtesy of Matthew Johnson.
Purcell Alumni at Glastonbury
It was great to watch the Glastonbury coverage this weekend and to spot some of our Purcell alumni performing.
Award-winning, multi instrumentalist Jacob Collier performed on Glastonbury’s West Holts Stage. Of the set, Music Tech Magazine praised his ‘seriously soulful performance’ as Collier turned the 30,000-strong audience into his own personal choir. In his inimitable way, Jacob got everyone involved with Queen’s Somebody to Love by splitting the crowd into sections and conducting them to sing different harmonies. Perhaps a Glastonbury first?!
Glastonbury also saw keyboardist Rob Taggart play on the Pyramid stage as part of Rick Astley’s band, while folk singer-songwriter Daisy Chute performed on each of the three days in various halls and stages. Also featured were Ezme Gaze and Bertie Anderson, members of the award-winning singing, dancing, comedy string quartet Bowjangles, and singer-songwriter Tirzah Mastin.
Our congratulations to the alumni mentioned and to any who took part that we may have missed!
Alumni Afternoon Registrations
With alumni in mind, we are excited to announce that registration has opened for our forthcoming Alumni Afternoon.
Following on from the success of last year’s inaugural event, we are looking forward to welcoming our alumni back to Purcell on Sunday 17th September 2023 (2-6pm). There will be opportunities to reconnect with friends and fellow alumni, take tours of the campus, watch current students perform and enjoy refreshments in the dining hall. A detailed schedule will be available in due course. In the meantime, if you would like to attend, please register by completing the form here.
In a change from the previous Alumni Afternoon, we would also like to invite alumni, if they wish, to perform as part of the afternoon. If this is of interest, and you are able to form a group for the event, please email alumni@purcell-school.org with the names of the performers and the repertoire.
Please do share news of the event.
Concerts Week in Review
This week we had a Piano Concert at St. James’s Piccadilly, a Jazz Department Concert at Watford Palace Theatre, an evening concert at Proms at St Jude’s and a Chamber Concert at Lees Court.
At Purcell, we enjoyed a Brass Department Concert, a Creative Ensemble Concert, Nathaniel Vallois Class Concert, a student-led orchestral Philomel Concert, student-led Musical Madness Concert and 4 Lunchtime Concerts including a Lower School Choir Concert and Chamber Choir Concert.
Well done to all performers for their outstanding playing: Freddie, Ted, Rhys, Phoebe, Chloe,Noah, Skye, Alex, Xilang, Rowena, Seth, Joshua, Hannah, Anthony, Albert Owen, Rhea, Laila ,Maddie, Edward, Tori, Yu Wei, Mina, members of Lower School Concert, members of Chamber Choir, Carla, Natalie, Martin, Shlomi, Sonya, Rebecca, Jacqueline, Tori, Andrea, Henrietta, Shlomo, Ozel, Amanda, Chloe, Nancy, Jessie, Grace, members of Big Band, Impro Group, The Jazz Group, Jazz Ensemble, members of St Jude’s orchestra, Chloe, Dominic, Herman, Lindsey, Jessica, Mina, Ivan, Thomas, Jennifer, Nancy and Kevin.
Open Morning
Our forthcoming autumn Open Morning will take place on Sunday 8th October 2023. We look forward to welcoming prospective students and parents, who will meet staff and students, take in the campus facilities and enjoy the outstanding music-making that characterises the School.
Please feel free to share news of the Open Morning.
Registration is open, please click here to attend.
Forthcoming Events
In addition to those highlighted events below, please visit our new online Concerts and Events Guide here.
Sunday 2nd July – Musical Madness Concert
Time: 7pm
Venue: CP Hall, The Purcell School
Tickets: Free admission. No booking required
Back by popular demand is the student-led Musical Madness Concert!
Join us for an evening of songs from the shows arranged, rehearsed and performed entirely by Purcell students.
Admission is free and all ages are welcome.
Monday 3rd July – Purcell Parallels III: Midsummer Meze
Time: 7pm
Venue: CP Hall, The Purcell School
Tickets: Free admission. No booking required
The third concert in the Purcell Parallels series, entitled Midsummer Meze, features new works by Maddie (Year 13), Robert Saxton, Antonia (Year 12), Phil Dutton, Aaron (Year 11), Gareth Moorcraft, Sylvia Lim, Cole (Year 11) with preludes and encores by Tim and Leyla (Year 10), Nemunis (Year 9) and Kaelan (Year 10).
Monday 3rd July – Commercial and Popular Music Dept LIVE at The Horns
Time: 7pm
Venue: The Horns, 1 Hempstead Rd, Watford WD17 3RL, UK
Tickets: Free entry
Come along to the very first gig featuring students from our new Commercial & Popular Music Department!
Expect to hear 60’s Motown hits, funk, rock and original music from our students as they perform in The Horns, a local established music venue.
Dancing is most definitely permitted!
Tuesday 4th July – Rachmaninoff 150 Concert
Time: 7pm
Venue: CP Hall, The Purcell School
Tickets: Free admission. No booking required
In Rachmaninoff’s 150th birthday year, join us in the CP Hall for a concert featuring the Purcell Chamber Choir, Symphonic Wind Orchestra and Sixth Form Pianists.
Wednesday 5th July – Upper Sixth Piano Recital
Time: 7pm
Venue: Recital Room, The Purcell School
Tickets: Free admission. No booking required
Student-led concert featuring, for the final time as Purcell students, Djordje, Rujie, Benji, Ozel, Anastasia and Thomas.
