On Thursday 4 March two A Level music pupils, Kate and Olivia gave their final recital performances in front of a small but appreciative audience of family, friends and teachers.  The wonderful acoustics and architecture of St Lawrence's church in Alton provided a perfect ambience for the girls' performances and the audience was treated to a wide range of vocal repertoire.

Both girls will be furthering their musical studies next year and we will be following their progress with keen interest!

The children in the Preparatory school gave their parents and grandparents a most enjoyable concert which included a great variety of music played on many different instruments. Year 3 gave their first recorder performance as did the newly formed Prep School Brass Ensemble. There were duets on the piano, clarinet and flute and, some very impressive solos from many other instruments including the harp and guitar. At the end of the concert Mrs Ongley thanked all the children and their teachers for all their hard work and wonderful playing; parents and performers then enjoyed chatting over coffee. Thanks must be given to the peripatetic teachers who prepared the children so well for their performances.

On Saturday 6 February, Jasmine Year 9 and two pupils from Year 11, Natasha and Sarah, participated in the Petersfield Young Composers Competition. The competition was sponsored by the Michael Hurd Memorial Fund. To their great delight, Natasha and Sarah were awarded first and second prize in their category - 16 years and under - and Jasmine was awarded third prize in her category - 14 years and under.

The adjudicator gave very positive comments on the girls' work and also provided some ideas for future development.

The children in Year 4 enjoyed attending a concert given by the Southern Pro Music Orchestra at the Petersfield Festival Hall on Wednesday morning. This was a good introduction to the instruments of the orchestra which the children had been learning about in their music lessons this term.

The concert began with a performance of the "Thieving Magpie Overture" by Rossini followed by a clever composition by our conductor Jonathan Willcocks called "Meet the Orchestra". These favourites were thoroughly enjoyed by the children who were then given a lively performance of "The Parade of the Tin Soldiers", "Winter" from Vivaldi`s Seasons and a musical story of "The Theatre Ghost" narrated by our compere William Godfree .

Music pupils from Year 7 to Year 11 had the opportunity to showcase their talents to parents and friends in the annual chamber concert on the 22nd October. After a welcoming glass of wine, the audience settled down to a fifty minute programme of items performed on a variety of instruments ranging from a Harp solo to a Euphonium item.

The soloists included the music scholars as well as some Year 10 and Year 11 GCSE pupils. Despite the nerves, the girls did extremely well - truly a testimony of hours and hours of practising!

World Music has always been an important part of the music curriculum. On Friday 9 October Year 9 pupils had the opportunity to explore the exciting percussion sounds of the Brazilian Samba. Two hour-long sessions were expertly presented by a tutor from Hampshire Music Service. Girls were shown the different instruments and after some warming-up exercises worked on producing a samba performance at the end of the session. Pupils worked with great enthusiasm and concentration on producing an exhilarating performance full of rhythmic vitality and drive. At the end of the sessions, one pupil commented ‘Can we do this every Friday?’

The children in the preparatory school enjoyed a music workshop on Wednesday morning with our new brass teacher who joins the school in September to work with Mr Andrews to expand the brass provision.

Mrs Stephenson is an experienced performer and teacher and she demonstrated the full range of brass instruments to the children. Some of the children were able to have a try on the instruments and one or two actually produced a sound! The workshop concluded with Mrs Stephenson performing some beautiful pieces from "The Titanic" to the "Jurassic Park". Should you be interested in your child learning a brass instrument please contact the school office.

Year 6 enjoyed a cultural day out visiting the City Art Gallery in Southampton in the morning followed by an afternoon of music making at a school in Milford on Sea.

The children were given a conducted tour of the gallery where they viewed the Perseus series by Burne-Jones, early renaissance and romantic paintings and finally some 21^st century sculpture. In the afternoon they played the gamelan known as "The Trusty Servant." This is one large musical instrument played by many people and which has been part of Indonesian life for many hundreds of year's. Andy Channing introduced the instruments to the children and led them through several different pieces of music. Everybody took turns to play big gongs known as Suwaken, small gongs called Bonang using bronze keys such as Saron and Slentherm.

On Thursday 4 June 32 girls and four staff changed into suitable attire to attend a Classical Gala Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The two-hour long programme featured world famous artists - Emma Johnson (Clarinet), Nicola Benedetti (Violin) and Evelyn Glennie (Percussion). The music included concerti by Vivaldi, Mozart and Tchaikovsky.

The Convent was very privileged to host a concert by the Sollertinsky piano trio in the Marian Hall on Thursday 19 March. Sophie, Anya and Kate gave polished performances of trios by Haydn, Arnold and Mendelssohn to an appreciative audience of parents, staff, friends and sisters. It was exhilarating to watch and hear three young professional musicians give such convincing performances and we hope to invite them back again!