Music Festival 2022
Posted on: February 4th 2022School News
The MGS Music Festival took place on Tuesday January 25, with over 250 entries from all sections of the school and three visiting adjudicators. Classes for each instrument/vocal category were organised into Beginner, Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced so that pupils, regardless of their age, were in grouped according to where they are on their musical journey. This meant that pupils who had not been learning long regardless of their age could be heard alongside those of a similar level. Pupils also received individual feedback on their performance from an experienced musician.
Year 9 pupil Jude plays the trumpet and is working towards his Grade 5 exam. He commented about the accessibility of the event: “It was made open to everyone who plays an instrument. There were posters around the music block with posters on how to sign up, making it even easier for everyone to access. I was then sent an email about when and where I am meant to be playing. It also included who I was up against and this meant that I was not left worried about how many people I would come up against and have to perform for”.
Year 11 pupil Vibhav entered the guitar, advanced piano and ensemble class. He said: "I have always enjoyed music from a young age and love to play for other people. MGS encourages and offers many opportunities to perform and compete against other like-minded students. It's really a joy to watch others perform alongside me and the anticipation is thrilling".
Year 10 pupil Giles entered Intermediate Piano and played a jazz piece called ‘All the Things You Are’. He commented about his love for music: “I like music because of how accessible it is – anyone can hear a song or piece of music and enjoy it or form an opinion about it, and jazz is very fun to play as it allows you to improvise and vary tunes how you like. I haven’t yet joined any of the school’s music clubs but participating in the festival has made me want to get more involved in music outside of lessons”.
Year 9 pupil Riccardo was awarded first prize in three categories, including Organ, Advanced Piano and Intermediate Strings. He commented about his experiences this year: “All musicians should have a chance to play in a concert, and it’s so great that MGS has so many opportunities in which you can perform. The recent MGS Music Festival at school was really a great experience for me, and I’m sure it was the same for everyone else who played in it.
The MGS Music Festival gives an opportunity for anybody to play any instrument in front of an audience: from grade 1 to grade 8 and beyond, and from guitar, to piano, to woodwind and much more! A great thing about the MGS Music festival was that even though parents weren’t allowed because of Covid-19 restrictions, the school allowed other students from the school to come and watch the performances, which really made the experience even more exciting. I was lucky enough to attend three different categories which allowed me to perform three times. And I have to say, the experience was really great. Can’t wait for next year to do it all again!”.
The MGS Music festival on Tuesday January 25 was an valuable opportunity for pupils from all section of school to share what they had learned and practised, and also to get some expert feedback.
Director of Music, Rob Carey, said: “It is obviously the first time since 2020 that it has been able to run live in school, and in my brief visits to all three venues during the day, I was heartened to see how well both the participants and audience members in each class responded to each other in such a supportive way. There were so many highlights amongst all categories and all who entered played really well, and the adjudicators had some really tough decisions to make.
Throughout the various lockdowns over recent months, it is clear that the challenging transition to remote learning has enabled pupils to continue to develop their individual musical skills, and both staff and pupils should be very proud of this achievement, although as the festival clearly demonstrated, there is no substitute for live music!”
