The Headmaster Writes …
My First Year with the Qs
Dr Tim Hands
Headmaster, Winchester College
I have been delighted to arrive in Winchester
and to be able to witness its remarkable
standards and traditions of musical worship.
The Quiristers are of course an exceptional
institution. And in Malcolm and Jamal we
also of course have musicians of exceptional
talent. In addition I have been able to get
to know some of the Quirister parents, not
least when offering them lunch in Eisenach
after we had all visited the Bach birthplace
Museum. They fully deserved it, having
asked me to speak to them about Bach prior
to this tour, and endured a catastrophic
ramble, accompanied by total technical
incompetence.
Q Prize Giving
Any choir school is a remarkable place – I’ve
been fortunate to be headmaster already
of two, in Portsmouth and in Oxford. But
of course in Pilgrims’ we have the most
remarkable of the remarkable – a school
that produces two choirs rather than one.
So it has been a great pleasure to reacquaint
myself with this remarkable school, where
once upon a time I was a parent, and where
about 10 years ago I gave away the prizes,
and to get to know its new Head, and some
of the staff.
In short, it has been an intensely pleasurable
year, and I look forward to many more. The
Quiristers are in cracking form: I don’t know
of a finer treble sound on the circuit.
Headmaster at the Q Prize Giving
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