Music News

Croydon Festival

Congratulations to all those boys who performed successfully in the Croydon Festival this year.

William Campbell (piano), Edafe Avwunu (saxophone), Louis Benson (cello), Olaoluwa Onabolu (trombone and violin), Shiv Patel (piano), Ayooluwa Onabolu (violin), Siddharth Bhatt (piano), Edric Pepra (violin) and Brandon Man (piano).

Special congratulations to Brandon, Louis, Edafe and Edric, all who acheived 1st place in their section.

In the Papers

Cumnor House boys featured in both the last 2 editions of the Croydon Advertiser (May the 7th and 14th). In the first, under the headline “Musical Pupils sing their way to festival victory”, there was a picture of the Junior Choir holding the Coe Shield outside the Fairfield Halls. In the second publication a week later, there was an article focusing on William Campbell naming him as ‘Little Mozart’.

Singing Sunday on the 9th May

The Choristers and their parents arrived at school for 10am. The parents had a meeting about the coming Malta trip whilst the boys had a warm up with Miss Brown - then the real work began. Apart from a few moments rest, the boys worked extremely hard right up till 5pm and made excellent progress with many parts of the repertoire. I am now looking forward for a successful tour of Malta.

Informal Concerts - 11th and 18th May  

On the 11th May there was an in the main hall. It was a very enjoyable concert, and despite being small and intimate, there was at least one representative from Year 1 right through to Year 8. For some boys it was their first ever performance and for others it was an opportunity to have a ‘dress rehearsal’ for their approaching Grade 4, 5 and 6 exams – well done to all the performers.

On the 18th May there was an Informal Concert which included over 20 soloists. There were also 2 ensemble performances from the Wonder Woodwind and Brass Ensemble. Miss Brown ‘hosted’ the evening and it was lovely for parents to hear their boys play with such confidence when under the spotlight. Special mention goes to Zakaria Mohamed who after singing a solo also played the Piano and Bassoon – a busy evening!

CONGRATULATIONS to all those who passed their AB exams - please see results attached below.

Vegetable Instrument Making Competition 

Inspired by the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra and Heita who is featured on YouTube, the boys were challenged to create their own vegetable instruments. We had some wonderful entries, including a Mung bean shaker, carrot guitar, carrotnet and Mrs Clingan’s very own Fruitohorn! Great fun was had by all, especially when we tried to play them in assembly. (Picture attached below.)

Junior Choir at the Croydon Music Festival - Saturday 24th April

CONGRATULATIONS to the Junior Choir who managed to win the Coe Shield and come first in the choral competition this year.  See the reports below.

Informal Concert 2nd March

The evening got off to a fine start with Mr Aslangul’s Cello Group involving 8 boys.  The Lamborghini Strings then provided some great fun and entertainment; with the audience joining in with the second piece.  Mr Parker and the Percussion Group kept up the energy with a rousing performance of Tom- Tom Tomahawk, before the evening was rounded off with two contrasting pieces from Mr Sizer’s String Orchestra.  In between the group performances, soloists in the final stages of their AB exam preparations, gave confident renditions of their pieces. The boys all went on to pass their exams, the results can be found at the bottom of this page.

Singing Saturday 27th February

On the 27th February the Junior Choir met in the morning for a Singing Saturday. We had some great fun warming up, with Danyal Nawaz winning the ‘Biggest Face Competition’ and a few boys trying their hand at ‘directing’ the choir. We still have some work to do before “When will we Learn” sounds as good as it should but it was fantastic to have some fun and focused time to share.

Informal Concert 9th February

On the 9th February there was an informal concert in the main hall. We started with Miss Davies Super Strings made up of 10 violinists. They showed us some nice dynamics and gave the concert a good start. We then had soloists on various instruments finishing with Abbas Khan on the euphonium with an assured performance. The concert was rounded off by Mr. Andrews Woodwind Group (now renamed the Wonder Woodwind) who gave us two rousing pieces to finish.

House Music Competition 2010 - 3 February 2010

The annual House Music Competition was earlier than usual this term - in fact with over 240 performances in the first round it was quite a race against time to hear all the competitors before the final! The final itself was spread over 2 days with the Advanced Final on the 3rd February and the Beginners’/Intermediate Finals being on the 4th February. Thank you to Max Beeson and Mrs Carley for helping me to judge the Beginners’/Intermediate Finals and Miss Brown for all the accompanying.

It was a pleasure to have Stuart Thompson (Director of Music from Caterham School) adjudicating the Advanced Final for us this year. He was very complimentary regarding the overall standard and managed to stay humorous even when making difficult decisions about the winners. You can see Stuart and some of the finalists with their certificates in the picture gallery - a full list of successful boys is attached below. WELL DONE to all the boys that took part.

Epsom College Strings Day - 26th January

On the 26th January, a select group of string players travelled to Epsom College for a Strings Day. We joined over 100 musicians from various schools to form an enormous string orchestra.

During the morning we all rehearsed easier pieces such as Old MacDonald and Super Trouper. However, before we stopped for lunch we started to look at trickier pieces such as St Cecilia Rag and Dance A Cachucha.

At the end of the afternoon we gave a concert to a very appreciative audience of parents and visitors. It was a very enjoyable day and a great experience for all those involved.

Carol Service - 10th December

On the 10th December the whole school joined together in the beautiful surroundings of Croydon Parish Church.  We experienced a wonderful evening of singers, speakers, bell ringers and instrumentalists.

With so many families in attendance there was a lovely atmosphere throughout, from the candlelit procession to the final Congregational Carol. The brass group, with their instruments covered in tinsel, rounded off the evening perfectly with a festive medley.

Young Voices at the O2 Arena - 2 December

WOW! Nearly 8,000 children and teachers raised their voices together in the World’s busiest Arena, the O2 on 2 December. With about 8,000 in the audience as well, plus star guests such as V.V.Brown and Angel Voices, it was certainly a day and night to remember. 

Congratulations to all the Cumnor House Choristers for learning such a huge amount of words and for joining in with the spirit of the evening by dancing, singing and waving those glo-sticks (and the banana of course).

Thank you to all the parents who supported the event in all sorts of ways including joining in from the boxes.

You can read Andrew Young and Oliver Vas's reports below.