Read the latest Music Department update from Mr Sutton
Welcome back everyone and what a joy, pleasure and sense of relief to have everybody back on campus at Charterhouse once more. Huge amounts of work have gone on behind the scenes over the summer vacation in order to ready the School for a Covid-friendly return to some sense of normal. We are most delighted that over in the Ralph Vaughan Williams Music Centre, some sort of live music can now return; even at our first choir rehearsal just a matter of weeks ago, the sense of joy and happiness experienced at the end was quite unexpected and yet so hopeful and positive.
So what can we look forward to this term? With year-group bubbles now in place, many aspects of Charterhouse life are having to be far more creative; the same is very true over in the Music Department and we are thrilled to say that we’ve managed to create a number of small ensembles and have even held our first concert! First Year Specialists (Year 12), Martin, Horace, Taki and Michael, gave a truly splendid Evening Recital showcasing some wonderful music by Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saens and Brahms amongst others. The socially distanced audience were equally thrilled to be experiencing live music once again, an art form that has sadly been so affected over the last six months. The concert can be viewed below:
In other areas of the School, work is underway with an encouragingly large number of ensembles that we have been able to create. We are running three choirs already with an aim to increase to five – one per year group. We have string and wind ensembles in almost every year group, sometimes more than one in each year. We have even managed to produce a brass quartet, somewhat of a coincidental stroke of luck that four brass players that neatly form such an ensemble all fall into one year group! On the performance front, there is potentially lots to look forward to.
With performance options limited at the moment, we’ve also begun short performances as part of year-group Chapel, particularly given that guidelines suggest that congregational singing is still discouraged. The Fifth Form (Year 11) welcomed Justin and Adrian in a beautifully haunting performance of Vitali’s Chaconne, echoing around the cavernous Memorial Chapel, performing to all their peers. In addition, on the topic of small-scale performances, teacher lunches are now on offer in the Llewellyn Room where every now and again, you might catch a quick five minutes of music whilst enjoying your sandwich!
As we all know, it has been a very different start to the term. Nonetheless, we are grateful to be back and that Charterhouse is trying to act as normal as possible for the benefit of our entire community. Fingers crossed for the weeks ahead.
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Follow the department on Twitter (@CharterhouseMu1) and YouTube (Charterhouse Music Department) for concert and event listings.
