Dates for your calendar:
Weekly rehearsals:
Have a lovely half term holiday
Thank you to everyone who wrote a Royal Albert Hall trip review for the school newsletter:
Later this term:
Try playing your part along with these videos:
Fab opportunity for singers:
BYMT news
Here’s an amazing example of keeping calm and carrying on! Click on the image to watch the video.
And finally …
Click on the image to see the video.
Trip photos
Thank you to all who came on the Royal Albert Hall trip. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
Here’s some information about the stroke rehabilitation programme that the RPO players spoke to us about:
STROKESTRA® is a pioneering stroke rehabilitation programme that harnesses the power of group creative music-making alongside professional musicians and clinicians to drive patient-led recovery in stroke patients and their carers.
The programme utilises a range of specially adapted musical techniques to address the complex needs of stroke survivors and their carers. From physical rehabilitation work involving functional movement, grasp and mobility to social integration supporting confidence-building, communication and renewed sense of self, the programme supports patients and their carers to work towards rehabilitation holistically, setting and meeting goals that matter to them.
Coming up this term:
Try playing your part along with these videos:
And finally …
Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time.
Royal Albert Hall trip
For those of you going on this trip, see you outside school at 9:30 am tomorrow (Saturday 13th May). We will not be able to wait for latecomers! Check your Satchel One for more trip information.
Coming up this term:
Try playing your part along with these videos:
The Ohio State University Marching Band (OSUMB) is a university marching band named for and a part of the Ohio State University. The band, popularly nicknamed The Best Damn Band in the Land (TBDBITL) performs at football games and other events during the fall semester. It is one of the few collegiate all-brass and percussion bands in the country, and sometimes deemed the largest of its type in the world.
And finally …
Royal Albert Hall music trip – Saturday 13th May
Coming up this term:
Belgium tour in school newsletter
Thank you to those of you who contributed a review. The posters will go up in the music corridor so keep an eye out for them.
Click here to read the article
Try playing your part along with this video:
Here’s a clip from the Hayes School production of Guys and Dolls in 2020:
Fab BYMT opportunities
And finally …
Summer Concert date change
Due to the year 8 trip on the 6th, the Summer Concert will now be held on Wednesday 5th July.
Please make sure you have made a note of the dates for the Summer Concert and Hazefest and that you attend rehearsals.
Hazefest 2023 – Saturday 8th July
Trip meeting info
Anna Lapwood (born in 1995) is an organist, conductor and television and radio presenter, currently Director of Music at and Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Because of her popularity on social media, she has occasionally been referred to as the “TikTok Organist” and uses the hashtag #playlikeagirl. Read more about her here.
How does a pipe organ actually work?
More score reading practice
And finally …
Summer term music events
Congratulations to Brooke and Emma for being part of the recent NYO Ignite Performances.
Over 160 teenage musicians took to the stage, performing an exciting repertoire of contemporary ensemble pieces alongside Stravinsky’s iconic masterpiece, The Firebird, in its original form.
Click here to read the reviews
Click here tune in on 25 April at 7.30pm or listen later as it will be available for 30 days on BBC Sounds!
Try this musical doodle:
Clara Reisenberg Rockmore (1911 – 1998) was a Lithuanian classical violin prodigy and a virtuoso performer of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument.
Philharmonia Fantastique
Try playing your part along with this video:
Royal Albert Hall music trip – Saturday 13th May
We will be having a short meeting straight after school on Wednesday 10th May in CGG to go through the final arrangements and reminders. All students going on the this trip must attend this meeting. It will only take 15 minutes. Please contact me if there’s a reason why you cannot attend.
And finally …
Music Tour 2023 – so much fun!
****UPDATED: Music clubs will all start this week apart from choir as Monday lunch is reserved for post-tour unpacking****
**Please scroll down for some more Easter Concert footage**
Here is our fantastic 2023 tour video! Huge thanks to Arianne for her directorial skills 
Click here to watch the performance of “Weeping”
Well done for a fab Easter concert
Keep an eye on Hayes Creates as this will be where you’ll find the videos of Joseph and the Easter Concert once they are ready. Here’s the MusicFest video:
Congratulations to those of you who were awarded music colours
New to music colours? Here’s where they need to be sewn on:
If you were awarded colours but only received the certificate, please pop to the music office after Easter.
Year 12/13s who received colours: please pop to the music office to get your pin badge (instead of the sewn on strip).
Coming up after Easter …
BYMT news
Play-alongs to try at home during the Easter holidays
Please let me know if you discover any other good channels so I can share on future blogs.
https://www.youtube.com/@Marcpapeghin (Trumpet and some French Horn)
https://www.youtube.com/@play-alongfortrumpet1418
https://www.youtube.com/@play-alongforclarinet5223
https://www.youtube.com/@TrombonePlayAlongs/videos
https://www.youtube.com/@play-alongforflute8160/videos
https://www.youtube.com/@Saxchannel
https://www.youtube.com/@play-alongforaltosaxophone4562
https://www.youtube.com/@play-alongforfrenchhorn6490
LPO Junior Artists opportunity
Fancy giving meditation a go?
Click here to try it out
A different kind of score to follow
Ben Nobuto is a British/Japanese composer, pianist and producer from Kent, UK. With a style described as ‘postmodern’ (Nonclassical) and ‘utterly contemporary’ (Manchester Collective), his music explores themes of attention and fragmentation, often drawing from internet culture and popular idioms in a playful, ironic and surreal manner. More often, his music is concerned with the symbolic nature of sounds rather than the sounds themselves, how memory and meaning are embedded and transmitted sonically.
It’s not uncommon to experience feelings of dread alongside joy. In spaces like clubs, pachinko parlours or Instagram, there’s a strange mixture of euphoria, boredom and anxiety that makes it hard to locate how you’re actually feeling. You’re just there, vacant and mesmerised in the rush. SERENITY 2.0 simulates this kind of environment by taking fragments of sound and accelerating them into brutal, lurid territory. SERENITY 2.0 was commissioned by Manchester Collective as part of their Heavy Metal tour in December 2021.
Ben Nobuto talking about his composition Serenity 2.0
Listen to this
And finally …
Next stop – Easter Concert and Belgium tour
The Easter concert is NEXT THURSDAY! All our extra-curricular groups are performing at this event so please practise your parts carefully.
BUY EASTER CONCERT TICKETS HERE
Here’s the rehearsal schedule for the day of the concert (Thursday 30th March). Please make a note of when you are needed and make sure you have your instrument/music in school with you on that day. The rehearsals will take place in the hall.
Your teachers will know why you are absent from lessons that day, but it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and catch up.
Usual lunch rehearsals will take place up until the concert.
Here are some things you need to know about the concert itself:
- The concert is at 6.30pm in the Hall. It will be finished by 9pm.
- You need to wear all black. Not blue, not brown, not patterned, and no big logos.
- Tickets are £5 via link above.
- The music classrooms will be available for coats, instrument cases etc. Please arrive in enough time to warm up and get organised.
- When the concert is in progress, you must not hang out in the classrooms or corridors. You need to be in the Hall being a supportive, considerate, appreciative member of the audience who shows awareness of performance etiquette which includes not moving around or making a noise during the music.
- Any questions, please ask.
Belgium tour – meeting reminder:
There will be a meeting at school for parents of all students going on the music tour to Belgium at 6pm on Wednesday 29th March. At this meeting we will be giving out the final details for the tour, and collecting in passports and GHIC cards. There will also be an opportunity to ask any questions you may have. The meeting will finish by 7pm at the latest. Further details are in the email sent out on the 3rd March.
Please click here to be taken to the Concert Band page. Here you’ll find links to this term’s pieces so you can play along at home when practising.
Please click here to be taken to the Musical Theatre page. Here you’ll find links to this term’s pieces so you can sing along at home when practising.
CHOIR/MUSICAL THEATRE:
These are the songs we will be doing on music tour:
- Steal Away
- Rhythm of Life
- Ain’t No Sunshine
- Revolting Children
- Blue Skies
- Weeping
If you are a member of Choir or Musical Theatre group, you need to know all six of these songs.
You will find all the links and various audio files on Satchel One to help you if you do not already know all of them 100%.
We will not be using copies on tour – you need to know them.
If you are NOT a member of Choir or Musical Theatre, you need to learn no.1 and no.6 before we go so that you can join in. Sometimes we have lovely, spontaneous performances when we’re on tour (if we happen to find ourselves in a place/circumstance when it is appropriate) and these will be the songs we do. You will seriously miss out on some of our most magical tour moments if you do not know the Hayes music tour classics!
BYMT news
Another score to follow
Musical theatre fans
e.g. no. 17 = Hairspray (hares pray)
- Nubiya Garcia
- Anoushka Shankar
- Shiva Feshareki
- Sona Jobarteh
- Florence Price
- Queen Liliʻuokalani
Listen to them here.
“This orchestra started because of peace in Northern Ireland – it wouldn’t have ever existed otherwise.”
A generation ago Sharon Treacy-Dunne was so inspired by the emerging peace process that she set herself a mission.
Her aim was to bring young people from Catholic and Protestant backgrounds together, using the power of music.
The result was the Cross-Border Orchestra of Ireland, which has helped thousands of musicians, singers and dancers from both communities showcase their different cultures on a shared stage.
In recent years its young members have staged sell-out shows in arenas across the UK and Ireland.
They have toured US cities and performed for heads of state including President Barack Obama; his then vice-president Joe Biden and the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Read the full BBC article here.
And finally …
Congratulations to everyone involved in Joseph
See more photos here
Next stop – Easter Concert and Belgium tour
The Easter concert is only two weeks away. All our extra-curricular groups are performing at this event so please practise your parts carefully.
BUY EASTER CONCERT TICKETS HERE
Belgium tour:
There will be a meeting at school for parents of all students going on the music tour to Belgium at 6pm on Wednesday 29th March. At this meeting we will be giving out the final details for the tour, and collecting in passports and GHIC cards. There will also be an opportunity to ask any questions you may have. The meeting will finish by 7pm at the latest. Further details are in the email sent out on the 3rd March.
Please click here to be taken to the Concert Band page. Here you’ll find links to this term’s pieces so you can play along at home when practising.
Please click here to be taken to the Musical Theatre page. Here you’ll find links to this term’s pieces so you can sing along at home when practising.
CHOIR/MUSICAL THEATRE:
These are the songs we will be doing on music tour:
- Steal Away
- Rhythm of Life
- Ain’t No Sunshine
- Revolting Children
- Blue Skies
- Weeping
If you are a member of Choir or Musical Theatre group, you need to know all six of these songs.
You will find all the links and various audio files on Satchel One to help you if you do not already know all of them 100%.
We will not be using copies on tour – you need to know them.
If you are NOT a member of Choir or Musical Theatre, you need to learn no.1 and no.6 before we go so that you can join in. Sometimes we have lovely, spontaneous performances when we’re on tour (if we happen to find ourselves in a place/circumstance when it is appropriate) and these will be the songs we do. You will seriously miss out on some of our most magical tour moments if you do not know the Hayes music tour classics!
The Oscar-nominated star of the musical film, Fiddler of the Roof, died last week on the 8th March 2023.
The Israeli actor and singer Chaim Topol, was best known for his performance as Tevye in the musical and film Fiddler on the Roof.
Topol always held a very unique place in 20th century music – few singers owned one role quite so iconically. It was a role he brought to the world in the hugely popular 1971 film, and then in over 3,500 stage performances over 50 years.
The story of Fiddler on the Roof centres on Tevye, a milkman in the Ukrainian village of Anatevka. The town buzzes with Jewish community and traditions, with the constant threat of displacement from the tsar.
In the musical’s most famous song, ‘If I Were a Rich Man’, Tevye, reflects on his labour-intensive, humble life, musing on a life of wealth and comfort.
Read the full article here
BYMT news
Congratulations to all who took part in the recent BYMT concerts and Schools’ Prom.
BYCB – this is for you:
And finally …
“Mack the Knife” or “The Ballad of Mack the Knife” (German: “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer“) is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera (German: Die Dreigroschenoper).
In 2003, the Bobby Darin version was ranked No. 251 on Rolling Stone‘s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_the_Knife
Show week!
Good luck to all those performing in Joseph. It’s a fab production so if you haven’t yet bought your ticket BUY IT NOW!
Click here for tickets
Click here for tickets
Music Tour meeting
There will be a meeting at school for parents of all students going on the music tour to Belgium at 6pm on Wednesday 29th March. At this meeting we will be giving out the final details for the tour, and collecting in passports and GHIC cards. There will also be an opportunity to ask any questions you may have. The meeting will finish by 7pm at the latest. Further details are in the email sent out on the 3rd March.
Musical Theatre group – choreography session
We will be having our choreography session with Danielle on Friday 17th March: 3-5pm in CGD.
It’s really important we have everyone there for this session, as it’s our one and only chance to learn the moves!
You need to make sure that you have learned both songs by Friday 17th March. There are resources on Satchel to help you.
International Women’s Day – 8th March, 2023
Calling all percussionists
Find out more here
Find out more here
The Easter concert is only three weeks away. All our extra-curricular groups are performing at this event so please practise your parts carefully.
Please click here to be taken to the Concert Band page. Here you’ll find links to this term’s pieces so you can play along at home when practising.
Please click here to be taken to the Musical Theatre page. Here you’ll find links to this term’s pieces so you can sing along at home when practising.
And finally …
If you don’t get it, listen to the lyrics of the following song!
Hayes Music blog 