News

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (NYO) has announced its 2019 orchestra and season. The 164 teenage musicians represent every region in the country and have been selected following 76 days of auditions held in 11 cities across the country where 710 musicians took part in auditions. The Purcell School is extremely proud to…

We are delighted that two of our students have reached the category finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2018 competition. Eliza Haskins, 14, is through on the recorder, and Torrin Williams, 17, on the guitar. Both students will take part in the televised rounds of the competition, which will be shown on…

Pupils from Arnett Hills primary school in Rickmansworth had a memorable musical lunch break last week, when the 30 Year 6 children attended a classical music recital by students from The Purcell School. The concert, held in Rickmansworth Baptist Church, was organised by Three Rivers Music Society and proved to be an eye-opening experience for…

Purcell students, ​Juliana Niu and Chelsea Becker, have won the Lower Junior Category (12-14 years) of the BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers’ Competition. Juliana and Chelsea joined three other winners, each representing a different age category, in the culmination of the BBC Proms’ Inspire scheme. The scheme aims to provide the nation’s brightest young composers, aged…

The BBC Proms Inspire Competition, now in its 8th year, provides a wonderful opportunity for young composers to hear their compositions performed by a complete orchestra and receive mentoring from notable composers. The 2017 competition was judged by Fraser Trainer, Kerry Andrew, Charlotte Bray, Hannah Kendall, Gabriel Prokofiev, Tansy Davies and, the Director of the…

  ​Saturday 20th May saw the culmination of a very special recorder project. The event featured new pieces for recorder, written by young people and all inspired by a new concerto for recorder which is being written by the composer Graham Fitkin. The project was a fascinating collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music’s Junior…

  Heartfelt congratulations to Year 9 Purcell pupil, Kazusa Taniguchi, whose fanfare inspired by Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ was one of ten winning compositions in The Royal Opera House (ROH) Fanfare 2017 composition competition. Kazusa’s winning piece, which the panel praised for being ‘mysterious and cheeky’, was taken by proxy to the ROH by past Fanfare…

  Year 8 Purcell student, Philip Theodorou, was shortlisted for the BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers scheme last summer. He recalled the moment he heard of his success saying ‘I scared my dog because I screamed so loudly’. As part of this experience, the shortlisted few – including Philip and last year’s Head Boy, Tom Sparkes…