Spring /Summer 24 - Music thread

@mustardrarebit it sounds amazing - a musical gap year followed by music school! Congrats to your DS

Thank you. It's a really exciting prospect for her. My DH was sent to the UK for 6th form and wishes his parents had known about Chetham's too. Apparently her friends all think she's going to either Hogwarts or Malory Towers!

New joiner.

She’ll love it whenever it is she gets to go. My child was only there for 6th form but it was fantastic. He said he wished he’d gone earlier in some ways.

Thanks everyone! She will start in year 8, currently in Y6. Her reaction when we told her she got in was brilliant! She didn't believe us at first 😆 She's super excited and has been telling all her teachers and friends today. They (and we!) are all so proud of her. It would be great if there was an earlier opening, but there is a bright side if we do have to wait.

@mustardrarebit how lovely. I hope you enjoy the year doing lots of interesting things before she starts.

Wonderful news @mustardrarebit - a musical tour sounds amazing!

Congrats to your daughter

Congratulations to her. There may still be some late availability on boarding as plans occasionally change. It’s definitely worth waiting for, it’s a great place to study.

@mustardrarebit - that's very exciting! Which year will your dc be going into?

@mustardrarebit many congratulations to your DD! How exciting with your plan!! Hope she enjoyed the gap year and the new school

@mustardrarebit oh wow! congrats to her ! How is she feeling about it? Was it just Chetham's you wanted or were you looking at others too? Your plan sounds exciting.

We heard back from Chetham's and daughter has been admitted! Unfortunately it is for 2025-26 year, as they are full for boarding this coming year. Trying to see the benefits of this and planning a musical tour around Europe with her dad, along with an invite to stay with SIL in Thailand. I think a year of home ed/music focus and travel could be pretty exciting.

We had DD2 back for the weekend - possibly the only child to get permission to 'come home for Eurovision' (they must find us worryingly lowbrow, but I think houseparent didn't want to get stuck staying up watching the voting!). The bassoon came too- she's got a lunchtime concert tomorrow so I've had many, many performances of Elgar's Romance.

Waiting on a date for G6 singing but apparently she's been entered and her teacher is happy that her 'nasality is much reduced' - this probably means she sounds a bit less Sarf East London. At least when she sings.

We're also waiting for test dates. Dd takes her g4 singing this term.

We're currently in a bit of a music lull which is actually quite nice after a frantic few weeks. She has a concert in half term and another one in July before she gets off to Italy o music tour with school. Otherwise pretty quiet.

She continues with her choral singing and has a trip to sing evensong at an Abbey at some point before the end of term. They used to go to St Paul's to sing evensong there but that seems to have stopped since Covid. We're getting a new choral director next school year so it'll be interesting to see what changes he brings.

Thanks @herbaceous - perhaps that fact that DD2 sings spanish a little in the way that the Wurzels sing I've got a brand new combine harvester won't matter too much then. It's very odd, because she has a very south east london accent when she speaks English...

Hello all!

DS's grade six singing exam involved a song in Italian. He couldn't remember one of the verses, so just repeated the previous one! Examiner obviously didn't notice, as he still got 147. So maybe they don't need to worry about pronunciation too much if the examiner doesn't even notice if the lyrics are wrong!

@Soundofshuna sometimes they really do need a hard deadline!

@CelloMumFlums DD has done a mixture of performance and practical ABRSM grades due to covid. When it came to diploma, AB were up in the air as they were changing their course, so we went with Trinity. The repertoire is wide and now we have seen what AB have replaced their diploma with we have no regrets. For singing she is going with MTB, entirely based on the option of songs she likes.

@Soundofshuna huge congrats- what a relief!

ironically dd2 has no problem singing in foreign languages - she’s gone for Spanish for this one though which is weird as we lived in Mexico for a bit and she has a south mexican accent (I think a bit like sounding as if you’re from Devon or Cornwall in the uk)- but her teacher is insisting she sings with a Spanish accent.

Fair enough - just weird to hear the ‘lisp’. She obviously sings a lot in Latin at school now but is finding church latin pronunciation weird after several years of the Cambridge Latin course at her old school - taught by the German teacher.

That's great, @Soundofshuna! I can't help wondering whether anyone does grade 6 theory?!