The Secondary Music Recital Series for the Year 10 Music class ended this past week, with the third group of performers presenting their classroom concert. As part of their Concert Time (solo performance) unit, the eleven Year 10 musicians performed across three concerts to an audience made up of their Visual Arts peers and teachers. 

The three concerts featured a variety of instruments, including the piano, violin, viola, cello, guitar and bass guitar, in programmes ranging across the globe and across 200 years of music history and styles. Student performers presented traditional American folk song to the work of 20th-century American violinist-composer Clarence White; explored the Romantic era of Western Art Music through Italian virtuoso violinist-composer Niccolò Paganini and the French composer Gabriel Fauré; brought in the world of Anime to the concert chamber through Japanese composer-songwriters Kenshi Yonezu, Mika Kobayashi and Joe Hisaishi; and the world of Pop with David Guetta and Taylor Swift, with some J-Pop courtesy of the Osaka band Hump Back.

As part of their Concert Time unit, students satisfy the four MYP Arts assessment criteria by providing their audience with the result of their own research, in the form of programme notes, complete an Arts Process Journal, summarizing their decisions and preparation for performance, present their solo piece, then and watch their concert videos to enable them to complete their evaluation and reflection.

Live music brings together the composer (the piece/song), the performer and the audience. There is nothing quite like a live concert experience; for performers and audience! We look forward to next semester when the Secondary Music Recital Series features our Year 9 musicians.

Mr Malcolm Mawhinney
Head of Performing Arts (K-12) DP & MYP Music Teacher