Roman River Festival
Posted On: 15/10/14
There were two concerts at CRGS recently as part of the Colne Valley’s Roman River Festival, both featuring world class musicians performing for our students. The first, a Tuesday Lunchtime Recital, involved two former winners of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition – clarinettist Mark Simpson and pianist Tom Poster – and cellist Guy Johnston, who amongst performances of concertos with some of Europe’s finest orchestras has performed the Elgar Cello Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on the first night of the Proms. The three musicians presented a varied concert which included music by Brahms, Beethoven, Messiaen and Turnage. ‘Cradle Song’ by Turnage was of particular interest to our students, given that the composer had visited the school last year and given a talk on his music to our A level students.
The second concert was a lecture recital in which a group of musicians played a variety of music relating to the GCSE and A level Music syllabuses. Students from several other schools in the area joined CRGS students at the event, which was held in the new George Young Building. The large audience enjoyed an enormous range of music, including pieces by the Renaissance composer Gabrieli, 20th Century composers Berio and Poulenc, and even a fusion of dance and classical styles by Piazzolla. Insightful analyses of the music were provided by former CRGS student and organiser of the Roman River Festival Orlando Jopling, and the school is enormously grateful to him and the other organisers of the festival for giving our students the opportunity to hear professional performances of such a wide range of exciting and inspiring music.
