Thursday, 12th October saw some of the best junior instrumentalists from the South of England congregate at Wellington College for a whole day of music-making. Orchestral players from nine local prep schools took part in a series of workshops before combining forces for a spectacular Gala concert in the GWA.
Strings, Brass, Woodwind, and Percussion groups all benefitted from the expertise of Wellington music teachers during the day as they worked on pieces by Sibelius and Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as an arrangement of Randy Newman’s You’ve Got a Friend in Me’, imaginatively reconfigured for full-orchestra by Jonathan Heeley.
It was clear that the young musicians had benefitted from their group work when they reassembled on the main stage to play for the first time under the baton of Natalia Luis-Bassa, Undergraduate Professor of Conducting at the Royal College of Music, stalwart of the National Children’s Orchestra, and Principal Conductor of the Wellington college Symphony Orchestra. In a vibrant concert full of musicality and youthful enthusiasm, the youngsters put their newly-learned skills to great effect, their spirited encore of Finlandia providing the perfect conclusion to a truly great day.
