Why Study Music?
Musical life at King's is great fun and an important part of every day for many pupils. There are opportunities for everyone to get involved in the many varied musical activities, to whatever level they want. Importantly, King's musicians love performing and have a broad experience of every musical style; they may not like it all, but they appreciate how it's put together and what impact music can have on us all.
What is Studied?
Performing, composing and listening are the fundamental principles that underpin all music-making. Throughout a pupil's time at King's, the music department strives to bring out the best of all these elements.
All Third Form pupils study music and they develop these skills through working in a variety of styles, from classical symphonies and African drumming to the latest chart sounds.
Pupils can use musical software in the new Mac suite to enhance their understanding, and there are regular opportunities to perform, from the informal setting of the classroom to larger school concerts.
The department is supported by a number of part-time music teachers, many of whom are musicians, coming from a wide musical background, from opera to rock and classical to West End musicals.
Something for Everyone
Whichever route our musical pupils follow, they will have experienced a vast range of different styles of music, and may even have developed a particular love of some sort of it. They will know something about all sorts of music and have performed in those styles as well, but most importantly they will go on to value their music in later life. There really is something musical for everyone and many try everything!
It is very pleasing to see the increasing numbers of pupils who take music at GCSE level. The exciting musical opportunities revealed in the Third Form are realised with even more use of computers to enable pupils to experiment with composition in any style they choose, with a limitless palette of sounds. They can use the recording studio to realise their work by playing live with friends, and perform to each other to discover the fun and thrill of live performance.
Facilities
The music department is open all day and consists of practice and teaching rooms, a recording studio, a recital room equipped with a fine new Yamaha C3 grand piano, and several computer rooms that allow access to the departmental sound library and various musical software packages.
The Chapel has a fine two-manual tracker action organ, a Yamaha C7 grand piano and a marvellous acoustic. A superb Yamaha C5 grand piano has been installed in the Woodard Room and a Mac suite of computers enable pupils to produce top quality music using the very latest software and realise how exciting creating your own music can be.
Performances
Tours to other venues at home and abroad contribute to the varied musical life of King's; the choir has toured Venice and Barcelona where they sang in cathedrals and various other magnificent churches; the jazz band have for many years, visited prep schools throughout the region and toured further afield to places such as Jersey and Barbados.
The opportunity to perform in school musicals and events is plentiful, and pupils also enjoy taking part in rock and pop evenings as well as choir services, jazz evenings and other ad hoc performances .
What's on Offer?
There is as much music being taught, rehearsed and performed as could be imagined. In a normal week, if there is such a thing, the chapel choir could be in Chapel rehearsing for the weekly service or Choral Evensong in a cathedral.
The wind band, jazz bands, string orchestra and symphony orchestra all have rehearsals in preparation for the many concerts that are performed in various venues around the school, and various rock, pop, indie, metal and fusion bands are using the recording studio to lay down their latest tracks.
Concerts, Groups and Orchestras
There are concerts of all sorts of music taking place in school throughout the year, in the music school Octagon, the Woodard Room, the theatre or the Chapel. Each acoustic complements the music performed, which ranges from full orchestral works with choir to intimate solos.
Regular Octagon concerts give performers of all standards the chance to gain confidence in performance in a really supportive atmosphere which everyone enjoys, including the performers. Orchestra, string orchestra and wind band have their own programmes of material that are presented in larger concert venues, and rock and pop musicians also have several concerts to demonstrate their skills with full lighting and sound rigs.
String quartets, jazz combos, flute trios and saxophone groups all contribute to a thriving chamber music scene, and there are plenty of ad hoc groups that get together for various projects.