News

For the second year running, The Purcell School has featured in a special event forming part of the Deal Festival. Pupils performed solo items and chamber music to a highly appreciative audience in the beautiful surroundings of Deal’s historic Town Hall, a building dating from 1803. After a spirited performance by Eugenie Dalgleish, Chian Chian…

  Young musicians at The Purcell School gave two staged performances of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, with a libretto by Nahum Tate, over the weekend.  Mary Kate Gill, Head of Academic Music, directed the orchestra which played with clarity and sensitivity throughout.  The elegant Continuo was provided by Oliver Franks and Francesca Lauri on…

  The Purcell Piano Department spent the weekend in Glasgow, performing three concerts alongside students from the Royal Conservatiore, in a programme of music from Prokofiev‘s Ballets: Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, and The Love for Three Oranges and Szymanowski‘s Mazurkas.  They will be repeating this programme at School on Tuesday 22 March and again at…

A very big well done to Sean Payne (Year 11) who played a warm up set for our Head of Jazz, Simon Allen’s gig at Bracknell Jazz in South Hill Park Arts centre on Friday 11 March.  He also shared the last set with Simon where they played all the numbers together, accompanied by the…

  Well done to Billy Watman (guitar), Mikako Shimatani (violin) and four of our clarinettists (Rachel Hannigan, Michael Madigan, Lily Payne and Thomas Gant) who entertained visitors this weekend at the Bushey Museum and Art Gallery as part of the Bushey Big Weekend Festival.  In a lovely bright gallery space the young musicians performed works…

  BBC Young Musician, the UK’s leading contest for young musicians, announces the winner of its 2016 Jazz Award: 17-year-old trumpeter Alexandra Ridout. Following an extensive audition process, the final of the BBC Young Musician Jazz Award took place on Saturday 12 March at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff.  The five…

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with our composers and Alison Cox, in 2013   Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with our orchestra     Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, former Master of the Queen’s Music, has died today, aged 81.  One of the foremost composers of our time, Maxwell Davies made a significant contribution to musical history through…

  On Saturday 1st October, the Piano Department welcomed Federico Colli to The Purcell School.  The Italian pianist, winner of the 2012 Leeds International Piano Competition and the 2011 Salzburg Mozart international piano competition, delighted Purcell pupils with the exceptionally engaging and sophisticated quality of his playing.  Before playing an all-Beethoven recital on the Purcell’s…

  The charming twelfth-century church of St Mary’s Perivale, for centuries a village parish church, is now a chamber music venue on the London musical scene.  Under the direction of Dr Hugh Mathers, the building hosts a busy programme of solo and chamber music recitals, numbering over 500 since 2005.  A group of Purcellians played…

Purcell alumnus, Martin James Bartlett had a busy summer which included two particularly high profile concerts.  On Sunday 9 August, Martin gave his Proms debut, with a performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Eric Whitacre.  You can see his performance here.  He also played the Gershwin at Cheltenham…