The Wykehamist
Over the years, pupils have come to you with various ideas on how to improve the music department— do you think you’ ve responded to these well?
Yes, I think so, but change takes time so some improvements are still in train. One thing that many pupils have asked for is the chance to perform beyond the informal concerts when they have a well-prepared piece or part of a piece. The chamber concerts were previously reserved for diploma level pupils with a substantial work, but we have opened this up a bit and also added faculty concerts. This has increased the range of people performing, whilst relocating the concerts to Michlā has made them accessible for wheelchair users and easier for friends and housemasters to pop in and out. We also have a new system to see the concerts online and get free tickets, which has also increased audience numbers. Now, people may have their views on this, but it certainly is something that we have acted on.
Pupils have also asked for more contemporary music, and we’ ve responded to that as much as we can, for example with the film repertoire, Márquez’ s Danzón and all the recent Chamber Orchestra repertoire.
Do you have any regrets?
Being the Director of Music means balancing your department’ s wishlist with what’ s going to have the most impact, and working out implications for staffing, budget, space and so on. There is always much more to do. On a personal level, I would have loved to conduct a Tchaikovsky or Beethoven symphony, and I wish I could have seen what Chantry Choir will become when the girls’ boarding houses are full. It would also have been great to explore more Baroque repertoire with Chamber Orchestra, maybe even to put on an opera …
But these things aren’ t going to worry me, as I’ m leaving with an absolute sense that these things can all happen in time. It’ s all about the right piece at the right moment for the right pupils, and with how quickly the school changes, cycling between generations of pupils every five years, there are endless possibilties for the future.
So … what’ s next for you?
I am still an active musician, so there will be more conducting, organ performances, piano playing and things that bring me alive as a musician. I’ m also looking forward to being Director of Music at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, where there is an excellent orchestra and tradition of music.
Being a teacher is, without a doubt, the best job in the world: arguably better than being a professional freelance musician, as in addition to the respect for and friendship you have with colleagues, you also get to work with pupil musicians who tend to be getting rapidly better and better before your very eyes.
With thanks to Morgan Hayes( H, 22-) & Winston Chan( Coll:, 22-).
Other dons leaving at the end of Cloister Time 2026 are IEF, DH, JL, IRP, AGMR and SFS. Whilst we simply did not have enough space or time to include interviews with all leaving dons, we hope that they leave the College with many pleasant memories, and sincerely wish them the best in all of their future endeavours.
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