Category: Music
Woodbridge School Music Department 1977 – 1994
We were saddened to learn of the death last year of Mrs Joan Hall. Many of you will have known her and know that her widower is a former Director of Music at Woodbridge School and their sons are former pupils. Read on to learn about her fascinating family and life.
Joan had a long and happy life. She died at home after a short illness with her family, and many friends and relatives visited her or spoke with her on the phone before she died. She was born in Sydney into one of Australia’s most distinguished families, that Mackerras family, and was the fourth of seven children.
One of the great formative years of Joan’s life was when she came to England to study the violin at the Royal Academy of Music in 1954, and then taught at Headington School, Oxford. When she didn’t find the right man there her mother persuaded her to return home to Australia to find a husband! Australia wanted to encourage people to migrate down under and so in 1959 Joan became a £10 POM!
Graeme was the Director of Music of Sydney Grammar School and appointed her as Head of Strings. She was a musicologist who specialised in eighteenth century violin bowing. They married in 1965 and came to Europe the following year.
Joan had many funny anecdotes – she had a fabulous sense of humour and was full of joie de vivre. She was kind, generous, animated, highly intelligent, had a profound love and knowledge of history, literature and classical music and her memory was amazing. At one point she could speak fluent Italian. She would often quote pieces of Gilbert and Sullivan, Shakespeare or the Bible. She was, of course, proud of all her talented siblings but she did so enjoy listening to her brother’s music on Radio 3 and it gave her such a thrill to hear the announcer say “conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras”. She would know instantly it if was one of his recordings.
Joan joined the music staff of Woodbridge School in 1977 as Head of Strings. The department was still in its infancy, but there were a growing number of pupils to teach. The compulsory scheme that every pupil in the 1st Form had to learn an instrument produced a batch of pupils who continued with the violin in the 2nd Form and beyond. Joan was responsible for organising string quartets and always led the ensembles and orchestras for big musical events. One of the great successes was the Music Hall evening which she helped organise where the entire music staff were in fancy dress and all performed in duets and ensembles. Joan also taught sections of the Music A Level course. This had several components; aural, set works, history and practical. Joan taught the Sixth Form pupils aural and set works and of course the violin where that was the pupil’s instrument. She retired from the department in 1994.
Of the many words describing Joan perhaps the most frequent was “inspiring”. She inspired a love of music, of history, or religion, of places such as France where she and husband Graeme renovated a ruin in the Loire Valley. She also loved Suffolk, the moon, intellectual conversation and above all classical music. Joan was the model of Christian love in practicing her Catholic faith. Her family and friends will miss her beyond measure, her extraordinarily interesting conversation and her loving disposition. Joan will always be treasured.
Year 13’s Nathaniel is celebrating being awarded a Choral Scholarship at Queens’ College, Cambridge – one of only a handful students this year to have done so.
Nathaniel, from Kesgrave, will be starting at Queens’ College in September 2021, to read Biological Natural Sciences, joining the world-renowned Chapel Choir on a Choral Scholarship under Ralph Allwood MBE, Fellow Commoner advising in Music at Queens’ College.
Nathaniel has been having singing lessons at Woodbridge School since Year 7 – although he has been part of a performing arts company from the age of six. His favourite choral pieces are mostly modern, such as those by Eric Whitacre and Rihards Dubra – although his personal favourite is ‘Håll Mig Kvar’ (‘Hold Me Fast’ in Swedish) by Malin Gavelin. He also enjoys singing spirituals and carols, and – as a soloist – likes German Lieder by Brahms and Wolf, and English Art Song, by composers like Quilter, Finzi and Dring.
Nathaniel says of his achievement:
“Woodbridge School is what really started my singing journey, as I had never had proper lessons before coming here, and all the various singing ensembles, such as Chamber Choir and Chorum, have helped me to gain the experience to join larger, national choirs, such as the National Youth Training Choir and Rodolfus Choir. Much of the credit must go to Miss Weston, my singing teacher at the School, for all the hard work that she puts in.
“What I love most is singing in small groups and close harmony works, so that you can hear and feel the dissonances and extended chords in the music, which creates a lot of tension. We have also had the opportunity to perform in world-renowned venues, such as Snape Maltings, Ely Cathedral and Cologne Cathedral, which is amazing!
“Coincidentally, the Director of the Rodolfus Choir, Ralph Allwood MBE, is also the conductor of Queens’ College Chapel Choir, where I will be singing come October, through my Choral Scholarship, and I am so excited!”
Nathaniel is also thrilled to be going to Cambridge to study Biological Natural Sciences, which he describes as “The perfect course for me, with ample laboratory time, interesting modules and the ability not to have to specialise until the Third Year because, as of yet, I still have little idea of what I want to study, ultimately, let alone pursue as a career.”
Emma Kent, Director of Music at Woodbridge School, said:
“We are so proud and excited for Nathaniel. He is a credit to himself, his parents, Miss Weston – his singing teacher, and the Music Department. I know that he will relish this brilliant opportunity and wish him a heartfelt well done, from all of the Music Department!
“This is only the second time in my career that someone has achieved a Choral Scholarship to Cambridge – many have tried, but only a handful are chosen – and Nathaniel’s tremendous achievement is a real tribute to Miss Weston and her work with the choirs here.”
Anne Wright, Oxbridge Co-ordinator at Woodbridge School, added:
“I am delighted that Nathaniel has crowned his offer of a place to read Natural Sciences with a Choral Scholarship. He is an extremely talented musician and has contributed enormously to the musical life of the School, since he joined. I look forward to hearing him sing Evensong at Queens’!”
Nathaniel is also very excited to be performing as the soloist with the Woodbridge School Symphony Orchestra at its Gala Concert this Summer, playing Philip Glass’ Violin Concerto No. 1.
“It is a challenging work, with endless amounts of very fast notes – which are going to take a lot of practice – but it is fun to play and hopefully it should go well and expose people to a style of music played less often at the School – ‘Minimalism’.”
Photo caption: Pictured, Year 13’s Nathaniel with the National Youth Training Choir (centre, second row). [Credit: WOODBRIDGE SCHOOL]
We are so impressed and moved by Year 8 Lilianna’s performance of ‘Blinded By Your Grace’, originally sung by Stormzy – here, she is supported by her brother, Year 10’s Benjamin, and Dad, Ray, who said: “Lilianna has really enjoyed her singing lessons with Mrs Weston and has grown in confidence.”
Lilianna recorded the song in dedication to her Godmother, Noreen Walsh, who sadly died a few weeks ago.
Mrs Kent, Director of Music, adds:
“In times of difficulty, music is a balm; we all turn to a particular song or symphony when we need to escape, heal or reinvigorate. Lilianna and her family totally understand the wellbeing that comes from expressing the inexpressible through music, and I am proud to have them in our Music Department and community.
“We’re all going to need the cathartic power of shared experience and music in the coming months; hopefully, we will be able to take some hope and happiness from this beautiful performance.”
We are now delighted to share with you the fantastic, fun and slightly eccentric results of our recent ‘Junkyard Samba Challenge’, which seemed a hit with both staff and students alike!
Such great creativity and well done to you all for embracing the challenge and making some truly unique tunes!
And thanks to Mrs. Kent and the Music Department for giving us all a focus for our energies during this lockdown!
18th January 2021
We thought that it would be great to get CREATIVE this lockdown period and hereby challenge the whole Woodbridge School community to help us to create a JUNKYARD SAMBA COMPOSITION!
We want students, parents, teachers, office staff, Governors and alumni alike to join in and help us to make a community composition – just for the sheer fun of it!
We can use anything from a 20-second recording up to 2 minutes – so it doesn’t matter if you’ve only got a snippet, audio or video, just send it in, by the deadline of 31st January 2021.
Be inspired with your instruments – an upturned bin, rungs on a bunk bed ladder or even patting your dog’s head will all create a sound!
As part of our values at Woodbridge School, we love to see our students taking the initiative and being individuals, in a real and authentic way, and we can’t wait to see just how creative you can all be!
Here, Mrs Kent, Miss Petts, Miss Barnes and Miss Weston from our Music Department show us how to do it! You can also view the FULL version of their fun video at https://youtu.be/TVT2pu-X2cU
For further details on the challenge, go to www.woodbridgeschool.org.uk/junkyard-samba/
In these ever changing times we are thrilled to still be able to offer a wide range of music and concerts within Woodbridge School.
International violin soloist Emily Sun, was a resounding success, when she visited to conduct a Strings Masterclass.
We are now full steam ahead for our Evening of String Music with soloists from harps to viola and a full range of string chamber groups to whet your appetite. Please join us on Tuesday 17 November at 3.15pm to watch our live stream of the event.
Looking forward to some festive cheer? Join the Symphony Orchestra as they delve into the Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky to bring you some Christmas Classics. If ballet isn’t your thing then the Concert Band have a ‘Cowboy Christmas’ to help you celebrate American style!
GOOD NEWS this term is that our ABRSM exams are full steam ahead for November 25 and 26, with all our normal strict COVID procedures in place.
A strong #CanDoMusic attitude is certainly something we are enjoying in these unprecedented times, and can been seen by our termly calendar below, which although slightly slimmer than normal is still very much packed with variety.
To keep up to date with all that is happening in the Music Dept do follow us on twitter @wbridgemusic
And what a perfect summer’s evening it was: the sun setting serenely over the school buildings, and casting a benign and beautiful light on those keen to entertain and be entertained in turn.
With the picnic rugs out and Prosecco popping, this was definitely more Glyndebourne than Glastonbury, although the music did offer nods to both venues in its range (and quality!). We started with The Seckford Sinfonia (and here may I say what a fabulous job the sound engineering team did in capturing and relaying the music to the audience – no easy thing to give depth and balance to strings, woodwind, brass and timpani across a Chapel lawn). Youth would have its day, and the youngest of our musicians played with maturity and poise to set the evening off perfectly. The Senior Brass, Percussion, and Senior Flute ensembles picked up the baton with alacrity and showed just what a musical education at Woodbridge can achieve – not only brilliant musicianship, but also camaraderie, teamwork, and fun – such fun! Smiles all round! The Concert Band, Chamber Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra then took us to half way with a tremendous mixture of the epic cinematographic scores, a little pop, a spirited tango and at the end tingle-down-your-spine and spring-to-attention-to-salute Pomp and Circumstance from Elgar. O glorious times!
Mr Turner then offered us a change in mood as we went more contemporary (though jazz and swing with Just Jazz and the Swing Band predates Zimmer even if not the Pirates and Gladiators). Foot-tappers aplenty here, and solos too interwoven with fine ensemble play. Don’t Worry about your Baggy Trousers, they’re Cool… Fabulous. And then for a further change of mood we went (and here I show my age and innocence…) ‘pop’: Ella, The Northern Lights, and James taking on a series of immensely impressive covers. What an evening… it just needed its grand finale to send us off into the night… and here were FourbyFour to offer just that: Lewis, Jonathan, Nathan, Brendan and Anna delivered an outstanding final set of playful, gleeful, and matchless swing and jazz.
The applause flew, like the accompanying bats, into the night and in and out of the Chapel lawn trees. What a great evening, and what a lovely occasion for so many of our wonderful Year 13 musicians to take a final bow, alongside a lovely bunch of OWs I should add. We cannot thank them enough for all the pleasure they have given and for all the commitment they have shown: to their music, to the department, to their peers and to the school. And of course we must thank their teachers as well! So, to Mr Turner and all in the music department – congratulation! Encore! Bravo!
This was a truly marvellous culmination of an astonishing fortnight of music making.
The individual competition, in its new guise, was a fantastic success: musicians excelling; extraordinary variety; and the full panoply of instruments on display, from drum kit to voice via woodwind, brass, keyboard, percussion and strings.
It takes a brave person to stand, alone, in front of your peers and elders, and perform. To perform brilliantly adds an impressive twist! To be judged… is intimidating, or could be. But under the wonderfully sympathetic, positive and watchful eye (and ear) of our expert adjudicator Mr Ben Parry (thank you, sir, for your skilful and heartfelt judgments) every one of our contestants must have felt appreciated, guided, and enriched.
But winners there must be, and, acknowledging as he did that on a different night, with a different choice of piece, in front of a different adjudicator things might well have been otherwise, Mr Parry chose the following for particular commendation:
Beginner Class:
1st place: Charlotte (flute – No Dice – Paul Hart)
2nd place: Esme (marimba – Menuet in G – J S Bach)
3rd place: Isaac (drum kit – Barracuda – Heart)
Intermediate Class:
1st place: James (cello – The Gadfly – Shostakovich)
2nd place: George (double bass- America – Bernstein)
3rd place: Ellen (oboe- Gavotte – Boyce)
Advanced Class:
1st place: Lewis (tuba – Concerto for Bass Tuba – Vaughan Williams)
2nd place: Jenny (violin – 3rd Violin Sonata – J S Bach)
3rd place: Billy piano – Sonata No. 4 – Beethoven)
Writing this, I notice only now that nine instruments and eight composers are represented, five boys and four girls – how’s that for diversity and a true reflection of the glorious spectrum music offers at Woodbridge?
Mr Parry was full of praise for the performers; and Mr Turner added his thanks both to them and to their near-hundred peers who took part in the competition, to all the staff who have supported them on the way, and of course to Mr Parry. What an evening. What a finale!
I arrived at 7:29pm… too late, it transpired, for the welcoming jazz quartet!! But they sounded great from the path outside…
And just as they had played with charm, pace, zest and variety, so did all their peers throughout an enthralling and richly entertaining two hours thereafter.
A showcase is many things: a chance to demonstrate snippets, a chance to roll out grander works, a chance to hint at the future, and a chance to celebrate: St Mary’s played host to all these elements and more. The Seckford Sinfonia summed it up: a hint of Spring followed by a hitching of the metaphorical whites for cricket, football and more as lots of us played spot the theme. Impressive already, how good will these musicians become over the next few years? Judging from the Senior Brass – very good indeed! And so it continued: Just Jazz and the Junior Flutes played with a passion and poise which belied their years; the Saxophone Ensemble and the Concert Band wowed with terrifically accomplished playing parenthesising the spectral ends of law enforcement (Clouseau versus 007!).
Refreshments secured, we delighted in Cellisti (including Etiane’s elegiac world premier), Cantabile full of smiles and excitement, the soaring Senior Flutes, delightful Junior Brass, charismatic Clarinets and, by way of the grand climax, the utterly fantastic Swing Band featuring a garland of mini solos which would have graced the grandest of stages. What an end to a wonderful concert. Our thanks, as ever, to all the performers, to Mr Turner and his team of inspirational teachers and conductors, and to you in the audience for your generous and enthusiastic support.
It was marvellous!
Friday’s concert in St Edmundsbury Cathedral was as magnificent as the setting.
Beethoven – the first symphony – composed by a young man… conducted by a younger one! Lewis – here he stood as a Year 13, yet he had the poise of a past master, the calm authority of someone far more experienced; and an orchestra in front of him at the top of its game. The music soared, the melodies sang and danced, the audience sat in rapt attention. And that fourth movement, with, in Lewis’s own words (yes, he wrote the programme notes as well!), its ‘brazen ending’! No wonder we stood – not just for Beethoven, or the orchestra, but also for Lewis, for youth, for passion and for virtuosity.
Follow that.
No sooner said than done, sir.
Mozart’s Requiem. Oh my goodness. The soloists – Miss Weston, Amy Lyddon, Jonathan Hanley and Kieran Rayner – breathtaking! The orchestra, led my Mrs Scott-Smissen – outstanding! The chorus – well, to say we enjoyed ourselves would be a start… to say we are all no doubt humming away even now, and still sent a-tingle by the memories, would be to get a little closer. And the audience agreed – once more brought to their feet at the close in celebration of all that is wonderful about the best of music played in the mightiest of settings by the finest of musicians. Woodbridge School at its best. Thank you, St Edmundsbury Cathedral for your hospitality; thank you – and congratulations! – to Mr Turner, Miss Weston, Mrs Stafford and all the performers for an unforgettable evening.