The Year 7 Music Programme has been for years now a staple of every Wilson’s boy—taking on a new creative skill and learning an instrument or singing for a full year in year 7, for free! Every year we have a showcase in both the Autumn and the Spring terms for parents to watch and listen to their sons make music with each other. It’s a great opportunity for parents to see the progress their sons have made and for pupils to have their first taste of performance at Wilson’s.

In this Autumn’s showcases we were joined by Joshua Chiang and Tai Chan—two diligent sixth formers who began their individual music journeys on this very programme. Tai led the Trumpets in their jolly rendition of Oh When the Saints , and Joshua led the Flutes in an excellent new piece Non Sibi Sed Omnibus (Wilson’s School’s motto—not for oneself, but for all) by Neil Franks, who coaches the year 7 flautists.

This year we also had the re-addition of the bassoons to the programme (led by Mr. Emson-Dukes) and they wowed everyone with a joint piece and mini pieces performed by each player in the section. In the trombone section, Gus performed an excellent solo of My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean (coached by Mr. Scaife), and the percussionists (coached by Mr. French) performed a selection of tuned percussion pieces from grades 1-3, kicking the evening off with style and substance! The Wednesday evening performers were accompanied by the singers (coached by Mr. Hann) who performed a selection of tunes including my favourite, Barnaby Berkeley Trumbleshaw—a song about a teacher who drives an unnecessarily large car…

After all the individual and group performances, we finished off the evening with a full wind band piece, the aptly named ‘Let’s Stick Together’ which was a crowd favourite – well done everyone for playing so well and working so diligently.

Everyone from every section has worked extremely hard this term so far and we applaud every student for their progress made. Awards were handed out to a variety of students for ‘Outstanding’, ‘Most Improved’ and ‘Highly Commended’ players—perhaps if you show the same or greater tenacity next term that could be you!

Mr Kramer