Oh what a Circus, oh what a show: pupils from age 10 to 18 have been encouraged to give lunchtime recitals in the busy school corridor
Trinity School is staging piano performances by more than 120 musicians in a week-long festival – with recitals by schoolboys and girl pupils (Trinity has a co-ed Sixth Form) played in the school corridor to renowned international performers making special guest appearances on the main stage.
This year’s Trinity Piano Festival, an annual celebration of music and piano-players, has reached its mid-point, and continues to Tuesday.
Trinity has an unmatched 25 Steinway pianos dotted around the school, part of a partnership with the world-famous piano-makers that goes back more than a decade and which encourages the school’s pupils to play music. Almost half of Trinity’s pupils now play the piano.
On a cold, wet January Tuesday night last week, the car parks at the large, fee-paying school in Shirley Park were still full well past 9pm, not only with vehicles belonging to late-working staff, but with the cars of parents and carers, some who had come to collect their children after band rehearsals, others who were attending the Trinity Musician of the Year semi-final in the Concert Hall.
Long after the official end of the school day, behind every sound-proofed door in the school’s music wing, there seemed to be someone practising on one of a range of instruments, not only the piano. Many of the doors have notices to indicate which staff member uses it as their office: there’s a “head of strings”, a “head of singing”, “director of choral music”, there’s even a “head of jazz, rock and pop”.
Compelling, truly compelling: international conductor Timothy Redmond (left), Tuesday’s adjudicator, with his three picks (left to right): Ben Abraham, TomShaxson and Brayden Dekas
The corridor is on the raised first floor. On the other side from the offices is sound-proof glass looking down on the music studio, where the band practice is taking place in a setting that looks like Abbey Road from a Beatles movie. It was here last year that a choir from a Thornton Heath Primary School, St James The Great, recorded their Christmas single with the help of musicians from Trinity.
And it is here where the world-famous Trinity Boys’ Choir conducts much of its rehearsals, before providing tracks for Hollywood movies such as The Hunger Games and Fantastic Beasts, as well as appearing on TV and radio for programmes such as The Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Show and the Royal Variety Performance. The Trinity Boys Choir is on stage again this week, at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday, performing in Les Choristes in Concert.
But as one Trinity insider confided this week, the problem with a boys’ choir, however good it might be, is that the boys’ voices break by the time they are 13 or 14. Thus was the kernel of an idea for the partnership with Steinway that began in 2012, and the Piano Festival celebrates the success of the arrangement.
Each lunchtime last week, pupils aged from 10 to 18 have stepped up to play a grand piano in the “Circus”, a junction of corridors which is constantly busy with people heading one way or another to their next lesson. “Like the piano at St Pancras Station,” the school says, pupils have been encouraged to play a piece they love or something they have written, using sheet music or from memory. The performances have regularly drawn a large audience.
“It has been wonderful to welcome students who have never played on a grand piano or in front of an audience before. We have also loved hearing a variety of music – including the theme tune to the cartoon Rugrats,” said a spokesperson for the school.
Tough audience: players of all abilities are encouraged to step up and perform their favourite number in front of their fellow pupils
There has been an element of competition about the week, with the Musician of the Year recital on Tuesday evening, with eight gifted pupils each performing a 20-minute set. These included an operatic singer, a trumpet instrumentalist and, of course, pianists.
The contestants who weren’t playing the piano had accompaniment from professional musician Alan Brown, while “superstick” conductor Timothy Redmond, who has worked with the London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, had flown into London that morning to be the adjudicator.
Redmond had a tough task, to choose three performers to go forward to a final, on May 1, when the performers will work alongside the London Mozart Players. “There were moments where the virtuosity melted away, and all we heard was the music itself… It was beautiful,” Redmond said. “It was compelling, truly compelling.”
He named cellist Tom Shaxson, pianist Ben Abraham (who has already played piano at Ronnie Scott’s and the Royal Albert Hall, and the organ at St Mildred’s in Addiscombe) and sax player Brayden Dekas. That could be a Mayday concert well worth attending.
As part of the Piano Festival, on Monday (February 3), this year’s Steinway Scholar, Upper Sixth pupil Caden Cheong, is performing in the Concert Hall at lunchtime. Past Steinway Scholars have gone on to study piano at the Royal College of Music on full scholarships. Cheong is an example of the success of the Steinway partnership: he now receives private tutelage from the Royal College of Music’s Vanessa Latarche.
Also on Monday, the Piano Competition will see the best pianists from throughout the week perform in the Recital Hall for a chance to be invited to Steinway Hall in London. Opened in 1875, Steinway Hall has a bank of Hamburg Steinways that offers an opportunity to try different models to suit their performance style.
Celebrity concerts: internationally known classical musicians perform at Trinity’s Concert Hall, after providing a masterclass for pupils
Trinity’s two dozen Steinways include two model D concert grand pianos and five more grand pianos.
The school’s Steinway Suite is the first teaching facility of its kind in the world, offering exceptional practice and research facilities.
Richard Evans, Trinity’s head of piano, said, “The Steinway Piano Festival is a unique opportunity for students to perform in public, no matter their level, and in a completely informal and slightly chaotic environment. This allows greater accessibility to piano playing and removes the intensity of a concert venue.
“Our objective is to celebrate the joy of playing the piano and to boost the confidence of every single player, but also to inspire others to play.
“We have enjoyed a huge variety of music this week from classical and jazz, through to musical theatre and pop songs. The standard is exceptional and the whole community here at Trinity are inspired by our wealth of talented young people.”
And the music plays on: on February 10, after staging a masterclass for school pupils, piano duo Daria Bitsiuk and Iain Laks will be performing at the school.
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