N E W S L E T T E R - Radley College

Radley
THE
N E W S L E T T E R
VOLUME 10
| Music on Tour | The Redevelopment of the Sports Centre |
| The Radley Year 2009/10 | Universities Stateside | Golf |

Music on Tour
One of the joys of Radley College is the all-round nature of the school. We all passionately
believe in offering boys the widest possible opportunities, whether they are academic,
sporting or artistic. The spectre of boys rushing into rehearsals fresh from the cricket field
or the river is a common one and in my view, nothing makes them into better performers.
Indeed in one year no fewer than 6 members of the 1st VIII boat were top musicians.
There are, however, occasions when
total immersion can bring benefits: the
rowers frequently spend entire days at
regattas thinking of nothing but rowing,
the cricketers on many a Saturday miss
parts of morning school to leave for a
match and are rarely seen back at college
before 8 o’clock in the evening, having
been living the game for an entire day.
In the musical sphere it is the occasions
when we take music outside Radley
that not only reinforce the team nature
of music but also give the opportunity
for an uninterrupted focus on musical
performance, whether solo or large
ensemble.
For the past few years we have taken large
groups of boys to perform abroad: Venice
was our first foray, and was followed
in subsequent years by visits to Prague,
Berlin, Paris and Barcelona. Currently in
the planning stages is a tour to Tallinn
(Estonia), a city well known for its
beautiful venues and architecture.
Front Cover: Note Dame, Paris, Below: St John’s Smith Sqaure, London
In planning these trips we look at a
number of issues, first and foremost
being what kind of concert opportunities
we can find. We take a broad spectrum
of ensembles with us, everything from
the chapel choir, big band and baroque
ensemble through to funk bands and close
part harmony groups. Finding venues
that will accept such an eclectic mix of
music in one concert is not always easy.
We look for a very significant central
church where we can sing: we have been
fortunate to have sung Mass in St Mark’s,
Venice, performed concerts in Barcelona
Cathedral, the basilica of Montserrat and
Notre Dame. We have found that visiting
a local school to give a varied concert
is an ideal opportunity for the boys to
mix with children of their own age.
Visiting an outlying town where entire
communities have turned out to pack a
small church and enjoy everything from
Vivaldi to funk has been very rewarding
indeed. Audiences are always amazed
to see the same boys performing in a
variety of different styles. This large mix
of ensembles makes the practicalities
challenging. Everything has to be taken
with us, and we are becoming experts at
negotiating Heathrow terminals with large
keyboards, electric guitars, drum kits and
saxophones of various types.
Tours involve around sixty boys from all
year groups and socials and it’s wonderful
to see them mix and form such a tight
team. In fact teamwork is essential on
these occasions and, on arrival at venues,
boys are expected to help unload, put
together instruments, stands, move
furniture and give out programmes; in
short the entire team tackles the challenge
of putting on a complicated concert in a
short time in a building that perhaps only
has one 30 amp outlet!
For most of us, however, the summit of
all these experiences has been singing
in some of the greatest ecclesiastical
buildings, and experiencing first-hand
their amazing acoustics. The boys will
tell you that listening to the echo of Notre
Dame or St Mark’s in Venice is very
different from making your own sound to
fill the enormous void of these places, and
then hearing it coming back to you. One
of the most memorable experiences for me
with the boys was performing a piece of
Gabrieli in St Mark’s, in the same building
for which it was originally composed 500
years ago. Such pieces give no printed
guide as to speed. As soon as we started
rehearsing, it became clear from the
acoustic alone, the speed at which the
composer had intended the music to go. It
was a wonderful moment where the voice
of the composer was coming back to us
echoing over the ages.
homes. Boys lead the concerts by
introducing the musical items and we
finish with a singsong when the residents
earn their cups of tea and cake by singing
along to old classics while the boys
accompany them on their instruments.
The boys then serve tea and cake,
remaining for a chat before returning
to school for lessons. Some of the most
significant of these occasions have been
some of the hardest for the boys. Staff at
nursing homes have often told us that the
music has provoked responses, perhaps
smiles, perhaps a foot tapping, from
people who otherwise have remained
completely unresponsive for months.
This is indeed community service, and
something the boys don’t forget.
The Chapel choir here at Radley is an
extremely busy ensemble numbering
now around 90 boys who sing services
on a weekly basis. Whilst we have been
very creative in our own Chapel with
fitting the boys in, it takes ingenuity
doing the same at cathedrals in the
south of England and colleges in
Oxford. Nevertheless such occasions are
memorable, and in addition to singing
evensong the boys have the opportunity
to learn something of the history and
architecture of the buildings. This is
followed by the customary visit to Pizza
Express (we have found every city has at
least two!).
The increasingly busy diary also
lists concerts in London, organists
performing on the rather nice organ
at Oxford Town Hall and the big band
playing as a regular fixture at Radley
Village Fete.
Come to hear us perform at a town near
you!
Stephen Clarke, Precentor
New College Chapel
Coventry Cathedral
There are lots of other nonmusical activity
too: on our last trip to Barcelona, apart
from enjoying the local food, the boys
enjoyed seeing inside the amazing football
stadium, a trip to the beach and a tour of
the unfinished cathedral of La Sagrada
Familia.
Foreign touring is by no means the only
time when music is taken outside Radley.
In fact it happens on a weekly basis. As
part of the Vth form’s community service,
we take four minibuses of musicians each
week to four different venues around
Oxfordshire, including schools for the
disabled, old people’s homes and nursing
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