News

Year 9 pupil, Roseanne Madon was selected to dance with English Youth Ballet in their production of Swan Lake following an audition last November.  She performed with the company at the Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury, on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th April.   English Youth Ballet presents full-length classical ballets in the regional theatres of England, Scotland and…

Purcell School Chemistry Teacher, Peter Banks took on the challenge of a lifetime and completed his first London Marathon last Sunday in a very respectable 4 hours and 22 minutes.  He was running for Sense, a charity supporting the deafblind, and has currently raised an amazing £1100.  You can donate by visiting www.justgiving.org/pbanksrun.  Well done Mr. Banks!

Glen Dempsey, Organ Scholar at the College and Chapel of St George, Windsor Castle for 2013/14, has been awarded a place at St John’s College, Cambridge, as Organ Scholar from 2015.   Glen was a pupil at The Purcell School from 2011-2013, where his place was supported by a Government Music and Dance Scheme Scholarship. While at…

First rehearsal of the new Big Band yesterday, led by Steve Waterman – fantastic to hear so many Jazzers in one small space.

Sinfonia in rehearsal this afternoon for ‘Peter and the Wolf’, complete with guest narrator in the guise of Mr Elliott. Do come and hear them on Wednesday at 7.00pm.

This year’s Impulse Outreach team leaving this morning for Norfolk, where they will be working with children in schools and giving concerts for the next four days. Should be a nice treat after the end of AS exams.

Congratulations to violinist Christa-Maria Stangorra (Year 13), who has won first prize in the violin solo group of the prestigious national “Jugend Musiziert” competition in Germany. In April 2013, she was the winner of the Youth Prize in The International Violin Competition “Leopold Mozart” (Augsburg). Christa-Maria is taught by Berent Korfker at The Purcell School.

On Friday last week, we were delighted to welcome renowned violist Atar Arad to Purcell.  He gave a masterclass, working with our viola players and chamber groups, and then performed a fantastic recital of his own Caprices.  Arad has performed in around the world as a featured soloist with orchestras and as a member of…

Ex-Purcellian Tommy Andrews is due to release his debut album on 30 June with the Jellymould Jazz record label.   Entitled The Crux, the album is a collection of seven through-composed original works blending the cinematic power of progressive rock and film music with the dynamic subtleties of classical music, British jazz and minimalism, with improvised…

Our piano project ‘Art of the Encore’ with students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland begins this week! Purcell pianists are very excited to be performing at the beautiful Fazioli Concert Hall in Italy, the Ledger Recital Room at the RCS as part of the RCS Piano Festival, and at The Purcell School.  In the lead up…