News

Alexander Ullman Ashley Fripp Kausikan Rajeshkumar Three pianists from the UK  have qualified to compete in the 17th Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition.  All three are Purcell School alumni!  Kausikan Rajeshkumar studied with Tessa Nicholson at The Purcell School.  A Cambridge University graduate, he is currently preparing with Ian Jones for his master’s exams at the Royal College of Music,…

Micachu And The Shapes: Levi with bandmates Raisa Khan and Marc Pell. Photograph: Stephanie Sian Smith/The Guide The Guardian Guide on Saturday featured Purcell School alumna, Mica Levi and her band Micachu and the Shapes whose third album, ‘Good, Sad, Happy, Bad’ came out on September 11 on Rough Trade.  Read the article here. Mica was…

Composer Paul Patterson returned to The Purcell School this week to work with prize-winning harpist Juliana Myslov and a string quartet on his new Fantasia for harp. The pupils then performed the new piece at a lunchtime concert. The work will receive its official première at the World Harp Congress in Sydney later this summer, with…

After last week’s marathon swim at Bushey Grove swimming pool as part of the Year 8 composition competition Max Labazzi got straight back into the water and competed in the 13-16 category at the 2015 Virgin Active Northwood Swimming Gala in several categories. Max won Gold in the 50m Breast Stroke, a Silver in the…

Alim performing at the Liszt Competition in Weimar Alim (second from left) with Tessa Nicholson & some of her former Purcell pupils. Alim Beisembayev (lower sixth), winner of the third prize in the 2014 International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar and pupil of Tessa Nicholson here at The Purcell School, is off…

Students from The Purcell School performed a programme of chamber music classics to a large audience at London’s iconic Wigmore Hall on Saturday morning.  The music included movements from piano quintets by Elgar, Brahms & Medtner, Beethoven String Quartet Op. 59, Sexteto Mistico by Villa-Lobos, and Debussy Petite Suite transcribed for wind quintet by Graham Davies.

Our Jazz Department has been buzzing with activity over the last few weeks, with workshops and lessons by guest artists including trumpet virtuoso Gerard Presencer, jazz drumming legend Mark Fletcher, and world-renowned session drummer Ralph Salmins. The Jazz Department Summer Showcase is on Thursday 30th June, and will exclusively feature student compositions.

The final of Junior Guildhall’s most prestigious award, the Lutine Prize, which showcases young talent, was held on Saturday 21 May at 2pm in the Silk Street Music Hall.  First place was awarded to 17 year old violinist Didier Osindero, a pupil at The Purcell School. Didier’s winning recital was a programme of JS Bach’s Sonata…

This year’s Upper Sixth Leavers held their annual dinner at the Metropolitan Police Club last night. Despite the refusal of the Headmaster to dance, everyone enjoyed themselves – may be a little too much in some cases? Here are some of this year’s leavers (and staff) dancing to … Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’.

Sixth form flautist, Matthew Higham received First Prize in the Woodwind section and the Audience Prize at the Tunbridge Wells International Music Competition, a prestigious international Competition held every two years in the South East of England.  Matthew was the youngest competitor. Matthew joined The Purcell School in 2009 and studies flute with Anna Pope and piano…