Music Department
Trinity offers an excellent range of facilities centred in the Wolfson Music Centre, a large teaching and rehearsal room. The Director of Music and his team of fifteen specialist staff offer a wide range of instrumental and singing lessons with numerous ensembles. The Trinity School Swing Band has enjoyed great success over the years. Musical events are organised throughout the year. Recent successes include productions of Grease, Fame and the Little Shop of Horrors at the Carlton Theatre Teignmouth. The Chamber Choir regularly takes part in performances with local choirs, and the Swing Band have toured the west-country this summer. Music is a popular option at GCSE and the advanced level course is increasingly, more popular. Summary of music for 2006/2007 Mid September gave us the opportunity to perform at the inaugural concert of The Helen Foundation in Shaldon. We were amongst three local secondary School participating, and the whole event was a very impressive showcase of our local community’s young musicians. Swing Band played a fifteen minute set brilliantly –Tim Woollcott’s drumming was particularly commented on – Martha Cassidy and
Gem Edgecombe sang ‘Joyful joyful’ from Sister Act II to great acclaim. November brought with it the AQA GCSE Music Integrated Assignment – a set of ideas for Year 11 students upon which to write a composition as part of their coursework – one of these ideas was to write music for theatre. As we had already entered our Year 10 and 11 drama students for the Schools Shakespeare Festival,presenting the Tempest, the idea of writing incidental music for our production soon became a wonderful opportunity for Gem Edgecombe. She composed all the incidental music for the production and, as Prospero, sang her own version of ‘Full fathom five thy father lies’. The Christmas Concert saw some remarkable performances from Florence MorganRichards playing her Grade 7 piece – a movement from Hindemith’s clarinet sonata – she gained a merit for grade 7 a few days later. Grace Kirkby played the harp beautifully as well as at the beginning of the Carol Service where she was joined by Indi Carlino, both playing harp music for 15 minutes before the Service. Senio Campos de Souza played Schumann on the piano, Connor Gilder played Chopin, Rupert Bennett played Rameau and Matt Smith played Gillock’s Up Town Blues. Chamber Choir sang ‘Wind beneath my wings’ the unofficial anthem of the Helen Foundation – our collection went to the Helen Foundation which has already given financial support to two Trinity Students making their way into Music Theatre and Performing Arts locally. Swing Band finished off the Concert with ‘Mission Impossible’ and the ‘Simpsons’ Theme!Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Shaldon Singers conducted by your scribe saw Tim Woollcott playing Timpani within the accompanying Chamber Orchestra,.On the next afternoon the RNLI Carol Service took place at St Michael’s, and a few days following that was our School Carol Service in which Martha Cassidy sang ‘Ave Maria’ by Schubert most sensitively and Chamber Choir sang, amongst others, The Donkey Carol by Rutter very accurately and musically. |
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Throughout the term Jason Hill (Year 7) had been attending his first term as
clarinettist with the National Childrens Orchestra. Amongst the youngest in the
NCO, Jason will have been successful over literally hundreds of auditionees nation
wide to secure a place in this most prestigious of orchestras. He continues the
Trinity tradition – Emma Yeo (Year 13) is a former member of NCO as a
clarinettist too, and she is taking her Diploma in July! As is Connor Gilder
(Year12) who, as a pianist, regularly sweeps the board at the Paignton Festival –
this year being asked to play in the Prize winners Concert – his playing of the
Brahms G minor Rhapsody at the Summer Concert was stunning!
We have hosted the Peninsula Clarinet Choir for several Saturday Open Days and a
residential weekend. It was formed by Marina van der Kummer and led by Emma
Yeo – shortly to be succeeded by Florence MorganRichards.
This is a group of
about thirty young clarinettists of Grade 5+ who enjoy an ever increasing repertoire
of ensemble music.
In the Easter Term it seems to be a term of academic preparation and coursework
deadlines. Lots of compositions bubbling away quietly – every now and again the
bubble bursting with a tremendous cacophony – Sibelius 4 running overtime and
always the timely reminders to ‘save as you go’ just in case! Recitals are in
preparation and this year the Chamber Choir was starting to rehearse Karl Jenkins’
‘The Armed Man’ A Mass for Peace. This remarkable work was commissioned by
the Royal Armouries Museum to commemorate the Millennium. It takes the 15 th
century song L’Homme Arme written at the court of Charles the Bold of Burgundy
(and the basis of over 30 Masses at the time) as a departure point and returns to it at
the end, having glanced musically at war from the Crusades to the present day
reflecting our multicultural
global society. It is a very moving work and our
performance in May was of outstanding quality and sensitivity. Chamber Choir
teamed up with the Shaldon Singers and a 45 piece orchestra. Several of our
students were playing alongside the professional musicians in the orchestra.
Florence MorganRichards
sang soprano solo with remarkable confidence.
The Easter Term ended with the annual Music Marathon – twelve hours of nonstop
musicmaking
from 04.00 to 16.00! We raised nearly £400!!
Coursework for both GCSE and A level dominates early May……..and this year was no exception, but it all came in on time and of really good quality.
The Summer Concert saw some lovely playing and singing from Fran Komis in her own composition called ‘Identity’. Some delightful classical playing by Rachel Gates and Alex Turner on Flute and Clarinet accompanied by Mr Turner who had arranged a set of variations on a theme by Dusek. Some superb singing from Johnny Duffy and Leila Jones, and some excellent piano playing from Evette Slinger, Paul Reynolds, Connor Gilder and Rupert Bennett all brought the musical year to an end.
The Swing Band is taking a couple of days off School to play locally and will have entertained audiences as far afield as Dartmouth!
Next year it’s Paris and Disneyland again! and we look forward to being involved in the drama production of 'Bugsy Malone' during February.
Many thanks to the visiting teachers and all our remarkably talented students for
making my job so rewarding and music at Trinity such FUN!
Mr Nigel Crabtree (Director of Music)
Associated Board of The Royal Schools of Music Exam Results
| Student | Grade | Instrument | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lily Geraghty | PT | Piano | Pass |
| Martha Cassidy |
3 | Practical Musicianship |
Merit |
| Felicity Mansbridge | 1 | Clarinet | Pass |
| Rachel Gates | 5 | Flute | Distinction |
| Rhiannon Depla | 2 | Flute | Merit |
| Leon Wong | 6 | Piano | Distinction |
| Gemma Li | PT | Piano | Pass |
| Rupert Roberts | 1 | Piano | Pass |
| Paul Reynolds | 5 | Piano | Merit |
| Felicity Gaye | 2 | Singing | Pass |
| Bethany Jones | 3 | Piano | Pass |
| Paula Knapman | 1 | Piano | Pass |
| Jessica Holding | 2 | Piano | Pass |
| Charles Chan | 1 | Piano | Pass |
| Martha Cassidy | 4 | Practical Musicianship |
Pass |
| Edward George | 3 | Alto Sax | Merit |
| Rachel Barnes | 3 | Flute | Pass |
and some results yet to be released:
Elizabeth Hatch 3 Clarinet
Tim Woollcott 5 Theory
Konrad Kuhmann 5 Theory
Alexandra Turner 5 Theory
Rachel Gates 5 Theory
Jason Hill 5 Theory
Charles Eames 5 Violin
Felicity Mansbridge 2 Clarinet
Rhiannon Depla 3 Flute
Shona Plunkett 1 Violin
Emma Hayes 1 Violin