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Music Tour to Belgium, 3rd – 6th April, 2023

It’s official! We’re off to Belgium for music tour 2023. We are SO excited to be off on tour again – it’s going to be a great trip so please get your deposit in asap to reserve your place. Your parents/guardians should have received a tour letter via email with all the details, but let us know if you are a new member of choir, musical theatre or concert band and would like to come on tour so we can get a letter to you asap.

Please speak to Miss Werry if you have any questions.

This is how much fun we had on our last tour (Hungary, 2019):

More music events at school this term:

Please try and attend all rehearsals this term. Remember to let the teacher know if you are unable to make a rehearsal.

MusicFest

Our first concert of the year is on Thursday October 13th which is now less than two weeks away. MusicFests are informal concerts where students from any year group can perform pieces of their own choice to a friendly and supportive audience. We always have a huge range of music, from students’ very first public performance to students who are already hugely experienced musicians. We have all styles of music from classical to rock to musical theatre and students’ own compositions. There are solos, duets and groups. Here’s some footage of our last MusicFest to give you an idea of what these concerts are like:

Sign up for the next MusicFest here

Bromley Horn Day @ BYMT

Well done to the Hayes School contingent who took part in this event last weekend.

More BYMT opportunities

Don’t forget that BYMT runs a variety of classes for adults too:

New BYMT Student Instagram page:

Listen to the pieces at home and try playing your part along with them:

And finally …

Don’t get it? Listen to the lyrics of Careless Whisper and watch the Electric Slide!

The Electric (better known as The Electric Slide) is a four wall line dance set to Marcia Griffiths and Bunny Wailer’s song “Electric Boogie”:

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Join us on our trip – Thursday 10th November, 2022

The parents/guardians of our GCSE, A Level music/music tech students and members of all our music clubs, should have received the trip letter via email on 21st September. Please let me know if your parent/guardian did not receive this email (Mrs Foster).

The final date for signing up and payment is Wednesday 28th September.

For those of you who are new to Hamilton …

Hamilton is a sung-and-rapped-through musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It took over seven years to compose. It tells the story of American Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton. Miranda said that he was inspired to write the musical after reading the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. The show draws heavily from hip hop, as well as R&B, pop, soul, and traditional-style show tunes. It casts non-white actors as the Founding Fathers of the United States and other historical figures. Miranda described Hamilton as about “America then, as told by America now.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_(musical)

More music events at school this term:

Please try and attend all rehearsals this term. Remember to let the teacher know if you are unable to make a rehearsal.

Hayes School Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

Thank you to the brass quintet for their part in the tribute. There were lots of lovely comments from members of staff about your performance.

Music news

Huge congratulations to Emma in year 10 who has just found out that she has been invited to join the National Youth Orchestra as an NYO Associate. She will join NYO as an integral part of the NYO Community, bringing her creativity and musicality to NYO residencies and performances alongside musicians in NYO. Emma will play alongside and learn from musicians in the orchestra, as well as participate in NYO Inspire activities, acting as role models for her peers. Well done, Emma!

Congratulations are also in order for Brooke in year 12 who has retained her place in NYO again!

We are very proud of you both 🙂

And finally…

The Starry Night is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village. Widely regarded as Van Gogh’s magnum opus, The Starry Night is one of the most recognizable paintings in Western art.

“Vincent” is a song by Don McLean written as a tribute to Vincent van Gogh. It is often erroneously titled after its opening refrain, “Starry, Starry Night“, a reference to Van Gogh’s 1889 painting The Starry Night. McLean wrote the lyrics in 1971 after reading a book about the life of Van Gogh. The song makes use mainly of the guitar, but also includes the accordion, marimba, and strings.

Here’s an arrangement of Vincent performed by the a cappella group, Voces8.

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Welcome back to rehearsals

It’s been great to have the music corridor alive with music again this week. Welcome to the Year 7s who came along to try out our clubs. We hope you enjoyed them.

Whole School Musical, March 2023

Click here to find out more.

BYMT news

Thank you to to those of you who helped out at BYMT’s Try a Musical Instrument day last weekend. BYMT were really grateful for your help in inspiring the next generation of BYMT musicians.

Music events at school this term:

MusicFest

Our first concert of the year is on October 13th which is only four weeks away. MusicFests are informal concerts where students from any year group can perform pieces of their own choice to a friendly and supportive audience. We always have a huge range of music, from students’ very first public performance to students who are already hugely experienced musicians. We have all styles of music from classical to rock to musical theatre and students’ own compositions. There are solos, duets and groups. Here’s a fun idea …

Here is the video from the last MusicFest so you can get a flavour of what it’s like:

Four weeks to go so get planning! More details to follow.

Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert

Oliver Taylor Hawkins (1972 – 2022) was an American musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Foo Fighters, with whom he recorded eight studio albums between 1999 and 2021. Before joining the band in 1997, he was the touring drummer for Sass Jordan and for Alanis Morissette, as well as the drummer in the progressive experimental band Sylvia.

Read about the tribute concert here and watch Taylor performing with the Foo Fighters back in 2008 below:

And finally …

John Williams conducts his theme from Jaws with the Boston Pops Orchestra
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Musical tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II

Listen here
Click here to read the articlehttps://www.classicfm.com/music-news/orchestra-choir-tribute-queen-elizabeth/
Click here to read the article

Rehearsals start on Monday

We are SO looking forward to seeing you all at rehearsals next week. Please encourage your friends to come along.

Whole School Musical, March 2023

Click here to find out more.

Be in the room where it happens!

Hayes Music Department trip, November 2022

The letters for this trip will be going home in a week or so. Keep an eye on the blog for updates.

Music Ambassadors

Well done to our Year 8 Music Ambassadors who spent morning registration on Thursday speaking to the whole of Year 7 about all of the wonderful opportunities on offer in the music department this term.

BYMT news

Click here to find out about all the opportunities at BYMT
Click here for tickets

The sublime Invicta Sinfonia returns to Langley Park for the second of two special concerts to raise funds for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, under the baton of Emily Singh. Alongside Tchaikovsky’s turbulent Symphony No. 6, the orchestra will be joined by pianist Violina Petrychenko for the UK PREMIERE of Vasyl Barvinsky’s Piano Concerto. 

One of the first Ukrainian composers to gain worldwide recognition, Barvinsky’s work is a perfect example of his late Romantic style with impressionistic features. The soloist Violina Petrychenko, the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, is on a mission to make the music and culture of her native Ukraine more widely known: her last three albums entirely featured Ukrainian composers of the 20th century, many of whose works have never been previously recorded. 

The concerto will be paired with Tchaikovsky’s (1840-1893) Symphony No. 6, one of the composer’s final attempts at musically conveying his personal anguish in the face of the power of fate. Tchaikovsky had close family ties to Ukraine and spent several months a year in the country visiting relatives: he cited his heritage and the country as inspiration for his work, composing there some of his most beautiful and enduring music including Swan Lake, The Maid of Orleans, Sleeping Beauty, and Eugene Onegin. 

Invicta Sinfonia was founded in 2020, and is dedicated to prioritising underrepresented composers and community engagement, and offers this performance of Barvinsky and Tchaikovsky as a bridge to connect and unite. The DEC’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal will help the charity deliver vital aid to hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Moldova. 

Find out more here.

Have you heard of shadowlogy?

Vincent Bal is a “shadowologist” and filmmaker from Belgium. He adds doodles to the shadows of everyday objects to create imaginative pieces.

He creates his characters from random shadows projected on paper and transforming them into something else, like animals or landscapes. The process started in 2016, after posting a picture and sharing it on Instagram. The reactions were so positive that he challenged himself to make one of these ‘shadow doodles’ every day. He hasn’t stopped since.

Here’s his Concerto for Piano Peeler 🙂

And finally …

If you don’t get it, listen to the lyrics in the following song. Enjoy!

John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was formed in 1983. “Livin’ on a Prayer” was released in 1986 and is the band’s signature song, topping fan-voted lists and re-charting around the world decades after its release. In 2013, the song was certified triple platinum for over 3 million digital downloads. The official music video has over 936 million views on YouTube as of July 2022.

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Autumn Term 2022

Clubs timetable:

Please make a note of all these dates, and make sure they are added to your family calendar too.

As you can see, we have LOTS of fab things planned for this year. Concerts, a whole school musical, trips to London to see a show and concert at the Royal Albert Hall and an European music tour! Lots more info to come so keep checking back here for updates.

Congratulations to our GCSE and A Level classes for your music/music tech exam results.

Summer news

We would love to hear about the musical things you did over the summer break. Please send me a quick email to tell me all about it so I can include it on the next blog.

Thank you. From Mrs F 🙂

Congratulations to Brooke for her fantastic performance with the NYO at the Proms and for inspiring the members of the NCO:

Brooke playing with the NYO at Proms this August. Watch the full concert here
Here she is alongside a fellow NYO player and fab saxophonist @JessGillamSax

Well done, Brooke 🙂

Emma in year 10 performed with SLYO this summer and here’s what she has to say about her experience:

SLYO (South London Youth Orchestra) is a fantastic opportunity for musicians from grade 2-8+ to experience what it is like to play and be part of an orchestra. The SLYO organisation runs 4 orchestras, SLYO 1, SLYO2, SLYO 3 and SLYO 4, and they play every Christmas and summer (with SLYO2-4 P playing at Spring as well) in Dulwich as JAGS.  SLYO 3 & 4 are chamber orchestras – consisting of only string instruments (violin, viola, cello and double bass), and SLYO 1 & 2 being full orchestras.

I have taken part in SLYO this summer, and the previous Christmas. This summer, we had a fantastic programme of Poulenc’s ‘Les Biches’ suite, Ravel’s ‘Pavane pour une infante dèfunte’ (a song for a dead princess) and Modest Mussorgsky’s famous ‘Pictures from an Exhibition’ (orchestrated by Ravel).

‘Les Biches’ is a one act ballet which consists of no story, but simply depicts many random interactions of people at a house party one afternoon. The whole ballet has 8 movements (excluding the overture) , although three of them are choral sections, and therefore we played 5 of them (again, excluding the overture). The 5 movements that we played are the Rondeau, the Adagietto, Rag Mazurka, Andantino and the Finale.

Ravel originally wrote the ‘Pavane pour une infante dèfunte’ for solo piano, however later orchestrated the piece. Ravel also commented that he gave the piece its title simply because he thought that the words sounded nice together. He didn’t intentionally name it ‘a song for a dead princess’, although it is often interpreted in the modern world to be played as if it were a funeral march. The piece features a very famous and beautiful horn solo which I was able to play, and it was such an amazing experience.

Modest Mussorgsky was inspired to write ‘Pictures of an Exhibition’ after his friend, a famous artist died, and he wrote it in honour of him, and inspired by his artwork. One of the most famous themes however, is the promenade, which depicts waking around a gallery, and this theme reoccurs very often throughout the piece. There ae 10 movements overall (not including the promenades): Gnomus, Il Vecchio Castillo, Tuileries, Bydlo, Ballet for unhatched chicks, Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle, Limoges, Catacombs, Baba Yaga and the Great Gate.

The performance was so amazing, and to be able to play such fantastic pieces such as Pictures from an Exhibition, the Pavane and the Poulenc suite was just incredible.

Emma, French Horn, year 10

Thank you, Emma 🙂

Find out about the next SYLO course here.

BYMT news

Click here to find out about all the opportunities at BYMT

As you know, we are big fans of the ukulele here at Hayes. Take a couple of minutes out to listen to this lovely ukulele arrangement of Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1. Enjoy 🙂

And finally …

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We made it!

Thank you all for a fantastic year of music-making. It has been great to see so many Year 7s join our Hayes Music community.

Have a fabulous summer holiday! Maybe do some really lovely musical things – try a new instrument, learn a new piece, or listen to something different. Go to a Prom! Proms are brilliant – the atmosphere is like nothing else – and the programme of events is huge and varied. U18s go half price on all seated tickets – however, I would absolutely encourage you to actually prom – which means queuing for a ticket on the day, and standing up (there are two queues – one for the Arena, and one for the Gallery – I would strongly recommend the gallery, because the acoustics are better, and if there is room, you can lie on the floor and listen to the music!). See the Proms website for full details.

Next year will be just as busy, and we look forward to lots more music after the summer break including an autumn term trip to see a West End show, plus Music Tour over Easter 2023 and a film music concert at the Royal Albert Hall next summer.

Summer concert video

Congratulations to all who performed at HAZEFEST’22

Click here for photos

Thank you to all who took part in this event. Congratulations to the winner, Emma in year 9, and runner-up, Will in year 8.

Who fancies performing on a melodica at the next MusicFest?!

MusicFest will be the first concert next term so you could start planning your performance during the summer break. Wacky and imaginative performances are very welcome! Here are some ideas …

And finally …

Who’s with me on this one?

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Last call for Talent Show entries

Summer Concert photos

Musical Theatre group
Staff Choir
HUB
Jamsesh #1

Videos coming soon

For those of you going on the BYMT tour this weekend …

Find out more here

Music Ambassadors – James, Charlie, Lilian, Elinor, Iona, Alice and Bibi

The Year 7 Music Ambassadors have reflected on their first year as part of Hayes Music:

Something for the West Side Story fans…

Here is a supercut of the 1961 (Robert Wise/Jerome Robbins) and 2021 (Steven Spielberg) versions of the memorable showstopper “America” from “West Side Story,” as made famous by Rita Moreno and George Chakiris in the ’61 film and Ariana DeBose and David Alvarez in the ’21 film.

And finally …

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Well done on a fabulous summer concert!

A brilliant evening all round – well done everybody!

Video and photos coming soon 🙂

Now it is time to tidy up the department. These are the things that need doing:

  • Music needs sorting and filing
  • Things need putting away
  • Some things need mending
  • Certain areas, i.e. the office and the store, need a good sort-out
  • Out-of-date things need taking down

If you would like to help with any of these things, or just want to hang out in music and have a jam, just rock up any lunchtime.

Thanks to everyone for a brilliant year of music. No more rehearsals now until September.

You can sing or play an instrument, or do any other kind of act that you might find in a talent show. You can even submit a duet (2 people performing together). The initial round involves submitting a video of your performance. This will be reviewed by our team, and finalists will be chosen. 

The deadline for submitting your video is Friday 15th July at 3pm. 

Finalists will participate in the Grand Final on Thursday 21st July at 6.30pm in the Hall. ALL entries will earn house points. 

Find out more here.

Fab opportunity for year 7 and 8s musicians

Work Experience opportunity:

I know we’d all take the stairs!

I’ve mentioned Heardle before but did you know there’s now Heardle 60s, 70s 80s, 90s and 00s!

Heardle 00s

Heardle 90s

Heardle 60s

And finally …

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The Summer Concert is next Thursday!


Remember to share these details with family and friends. Tickets can be bought on the door or in advance via ParentPay so look out for this on your account:

Summer Concert rehearsal schedule

Here is the rehearsal schedule for p1-5 (in the hall) on Thursday 7th July:

Weekly rehearsals will continue as usual next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

On concert day…

  • You must ONLY be in rehearsals when you are scheduled. Absence from lessons will be on SIMS according to this schedule – so if you skip any other lessons because you are ‘rehearsing’, it will go down as truancy
  • The concert starts at 6.30pm. You need to be there in time to be ready. Use CGD to park instrument cases etc.
  • You need to wear all black outfits
  • When you are not actually performing, you need to be in the hall being a lovely supportive, appreciative audience member for everyone else. This involves being quiet!
  • The concert will be finished by 9.30pm. If you are a good musician and good member of our music community, you will stick around at the end to help clear away
  • Tickets are £5. Under-18s are FREE!

Listen to the pieces at home and try playing your part along with them:

Please note -we will not be playing Mambo in the summer concert.

Click here for separate audio parts for both songs

Musical Theatre choreography workshop

Thank you to Larissa for another fab session!

You can view the videos from the session on Satchel One. Please let Miss W know if you haven’t received the task. Keep practising the songs and moves so you are ready for next week’s concert.

Click here

Everyone Matters Music Project

Everyone Matters music projects aim to take live music and music-making to people of all ages who cannot readily access it themselves. Thank you to those of you who are involved and …

Everything you need to know about this event is on Satchel One.

Find out more here.

BYMT news

And finally …

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There are just under TWO WEEKS to go until the Summer Concert!

MUSICAL THEATRE GROUP

CHOREOGRAPHY SESSION – SAVE THE DATE

Our next choreography session with Larissa will be held in CGD after school on Wednesday 29th June 3-5 pm. We need as many of you there as possible so that you are all ready to perform in the Summer Concert.

Listen to the pieces at home and try playing your part along with them:

We will not be playing Mambo in the summer concert.

Click here for separate audio parts for both songs

Click here
The entry details will be on your Satchel One account shortly so keep checking!

Find out more here.

Interview with Mr Gunning about Glastonbury Festival – by Bibi, Year 7

Back in 1990 …

And now in 2022 …

Click on the image
Click on the image

And finally …