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MUSIC AND DRAMA 9
Eton Choral Course
Tom Dean, U6E
At the beginning of the summer holiday, I was lucky
enough to go to Eton on a choral course. Our conductor
was the MBE who set up the course in the 1980s,
Ralph Allwood, who managed to get us from a shoddy
group of teenagers with limited sight-reading skills to
a cohesive choir which performed in Trinity College
Cambridge and St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
During the course, as well as singing as one large choir, we split off into
small groups to improve our sight-reading skills and learn how to make
a musical group completely in tune with each other. We each had two
one-on-one singing lessons with a leading professional singer; I took the
opportunity to sing a song I had written, which taught me a lot about how
to sing whilst playing the piano. Linda Hirst, a soprano with an illustrious
career who has been head of vocal studies at Trinity Laban for twenty
years, came as a special guest to give us a vocal masterclass, which is
essentially a singing lesson for a few singers in front of a large audience.
My personal highlight from the week was the Radio 3 recording of
evensong, where I was lucky enough to be given a solo (It should be going
out around Lent 2018 if you are interested). As a result of apparently
performing well on the course, Ralph Allwood has invited me to join his
choir, Rodolfus; I am thrilled to have such a great singing opportunity and
cannot wait for the upcoming performances. All in all, it was an excellent
course that taught me a great deal about singing in a choir, and I would
recommend any budding singer to check out the course if they want to
improve their musical skills and perform at an exceptionally high level.
Speech Lessons
Emilia Hitching, 5W
This year, 400 pupils are taking speech
lessons, from the Alphas in the Prep
School to groups in the Lower Sixth. While
many pupils start in the Prep or Thirds, it
is possible to join at the beginning of any
school year. A lot of the focus of speech
in younger years is on building confidence
for shyer students. Invaluable lessons in
self-expression and communication are
hidden away in games like ‘Painting the
Elephant’, a nonsense game to heighten
imagination. Speech exams take place
at the end of the academic year and are
always focused on poetry and prose,
the length and difficulty of the extracts
increasing with grade. “Exams” in the
Prep, however, start off with learning a
short poem and discussing your favourite book!
Speech in the Senior School develops the idea of self-expression
and begins to combine this with theatrical nuance. The theory
side of the exam also increases, with students learning both
about the biological workings of the body to enable performance
and the literary intricacies and importance of the pieces they
choose. Taught in small groups of around eight, lessons continue
to bring students out of themselves. Something as simple as
posture or knowing what to do with your hands during a piece
extends to real life, with students becoming more confident in
the classroom and among their peers. When I volunteered with
speech tutoring for my Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award last
year, I was struck by how the pupils changed throughout the year.
Some of the livelier students calmed down as soon as they could
channel their energy into a piece, and the shiest were given the
confidence to make themselves heard.
In a testament to the success of speech teachers Libby and
Gary Oliver, 256 pupils of 390 who sat LAMDA exams last July
achieved distinction, the highest number from a single school in
the country. Having just sat my Grade 8 exam a few weeks ago,
I encourage every student to take part in Speech at some point
in their school career. It’s only half an hour a week, but gives
immeasurable help, and, of course, fun!