fettes  orchestra  day

On Sunday, Mr Gale and I took a group of the core Belhaven instrumentalists over to Fettes college for the annual Scottish Preparatory Schools’ Orchestra Day.

 

Primary school orchestras are, by their nature, not usually very big and this kind of collegiate activity with lots of schools taking part is often the children’s first experience of playing in such a large group. Alongside nine Belhaven pupils the full orchestra, of over 100 players, was made up of students from Ardvreck, Cargilfield, Fettes Prep, St Leonard’s New Park and St Mary’s Melrose.

 

The full orchestra was first to the rehearsal platform, to play the Pink Panther theme. To this large ensemble we contributed Jemima Black, Emilia White and Alexander Hall on violin, Harry Clough on ‘cello, Freddie Woodd on flute, Abigail Pooley and Gina Hope on clarinet , with Andrew Watson and Sophie Benson playing percussion. We then played an arrangement of the Bird Catcher’s Song from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

 

 

 

 

Then, the group split in two; to make a wind band and a string group. While the wind and percussion players rehearsed a Vaughan Williams Sea Song and the theme from Wallace & Gromit, Mr Gale and I coached the strings through the Sleeping Beauty Waltz and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

 

After lunch there was an organised non-musical activity for the children, in which they had to split into teams and build a car from Meccano which had to carry a golf ball, before a series of races to determine the overall winner (St Leonard’s).

 

Following a final rehearsal the pupils changed into concert gear and had to summon up some energy to wow the parents who had gathered for the informal concert, which marked the end of the day.

 

All three ensembles played really well and the performance was a testament to the effort that had gone into the day. Hopefully the children can take away and remember the experience of making music with such a large group, and it might inspire them to continue with music at their senior schools.

 

Our thanks go to all the music staff at Fettes for organising and running the day.