Taylorian 2020

20 attend a concert at the Barbican to see the LSSO perform, with current pupils George Wright, and Willem and Niels Redman, as well as OMT Toby King-Cline amongst the performers on stage. The LSSO is the premier London Youth Orchestra, and it was wonderful to see so many of our top musicians in this prestigious orchestra. This year’s Upper Sixth musicians have contributed a huge amount to the musical life of the School, and their latest initiative was to organise a 24 Hours of Music event to raise money for PHAB. This meant continuous music for 24 hours, with concerts, open rehearsals, and solo and small group performances. The protagonists behind the whole endeavour were joined by a few others to keep the music going throughout the night, and congratulations must go to Harrison Robb, Josh Winyard, Ben Hunt, Sam Pemberton, Lawrie Lee, Theo Berenzweig, Harry Brook and George Wright for having the stamina to last the full music marathon, raising £4000 for PHAB in the process. Organ playing is thriving at Merchant Taylors’ under the watchful eye of Mrs Stubbs. In November, a group of our organists attended the UK premiere of the very rarely performed La Revolte des Orgues, a nine-organ extravaganza by Jean Guillou, in Westminster Cathedral. The concert was an inspiration for the boys who attended, including the latest student to receive an Oxbridge organ scholarship, Ben Hunt. It must have been satisfying to be just around the corner fromWestminster Abbey, too, where OMT Alexander Hamilton is currently Organ Scholar. Later in the year it was the turn of Ben Hunt and Moses Ng to perform in an organ recital given at St Lawrence, Jewry, in the City of London. Just a few days before the lockdown began, this turned out to be the final public performance of the year. Earlier in the year, we were able to hold two of our School Music Competitions. In January the annual Merchant Taylors’ Young Musician of the Year saw Kai Elvey, Aryan Daryanani, Praniv Ahluwalia and Ayoush Seneviratne winning their categories in the music competition where future stars find early success at Merchant Taylors’. In the second half of term the Senior Music Competition proved to be a joyous celebration of the musical excellence that the musicians at the other end of the school command. An eagerly anticipated event, with Professor Colin Stone from the Royal Academy of Music adjudicating, the competition was friendly but fierce in each category. Ben Hunt’s performance on the organ was in a class of its own, and he was a worthy winner of the organ category. George Wright won the brass category on the euphonium, but I am sure that George Bindlosswill anticipatewithrelisha rematch next year. Willem Redman won the string category, and Theo Berenzweig won in the voice category. Sam Pemberton pipped Zev Stonefield to the winning line in the Percussion category and Demetri Alvanis won the Piano category before Harrison Robb took the prize for Woodwind. The overall winner, who received the Reynolds Cup for excellence in musical performance, was Harrison Robb for his outstanding performance on the saxophone, making it two years in succession for wind players. Chamber music is another aspect of the Music Department that is particularly strong, and March is a busy month for these musicians, with a chamber music concert at School as well as the South East Schools’ Chamber Music Competition. The outstanding performance of the season was given by the Piano Trio, comprising Qinuo Wang (violin), Adam Valabhji (cello) and Moses Ng (Piano), who stunned the audience at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall Concert with their performance of the third movement of Ravel’s Piano Trio. Even in their absence, our musicians have made themselves heard. Hardly aweek goes by without some new online collaborative music-making from vocal groups and bands. It has kept us all going. Nor should I forget the wonderful monologues made by our drama scholars. So far, we have celebrated performance and activity. Now I would like to turn to another element of a Merchant Taylors’ education that characterises the school: our support and care for others. This year, our outreach work has been ably led by Myles Alexander- Bryan. Continuing our work with local primary schools, we carried out one-to-one weekly mentoring of 13 boys at Greenfields School, helping them with their reading and providing a male role model for the boys. We organised a choir of 30 at Bushey Heath School, who performed for their whole school at Christmas, and at a care home in the local area. Weekly technology lessons have also been provided by our boys at lunchtimes, including video technology and editing masterclasses. At Eastbury Farm we set up two coding days this year, giving 45 members of their Year 5 the opportunity to learn basic coding language and apply it to enjoyable scenarios, such as controlling a robot.  Our Charity Drive team have also been busy. We have been supporting three important charities: the Lynda Jackson Macmillan Centre, Centrepoint, andAge UK Hertfordshire. Altogether, we have raised over £8000 for these charities. Fundraising events have been varied; perhaps most memorable was the sleepout in February, which saw over 50 boys and staff spend the night sleeping rough in the inner quad despite strong winds and heavy rain. Even after the school had to close for the lockdown period, the team has continued to create events. We have especially aimed to support Age UK Hertfordshire at a time of particular need. The nature of the events has had to change: traditional mufti days and sale of food at House Athletics has been replaced by Fifa tournaments, Kahoot quizzes and video challenges. The entrepreneurial talents displayed by our fundraisers have beenmore thanmatched by the pupils who have enjoyed participation in Young Enterprise. This year, we fielded three teams, with over 40 boys taking part. A Lower Sixth team called Lifetime reached the Young Enterprise UK national finals. Over 1000 student companies entered the competition and 13,700 students took part from 719 schools. Only thirteen companies made it to the finals. We can be immensely proud of the boys who took their company to the final hurdle. Lifetime created a product offer targeted at older people and those in care homes — a target market not often seen in the YE competition. In-depth market research with residents and staff in a local care home led them to set up an innovative partnership with the home via a ‘gift of time’ to help residents learn how to use technology such as phones and iPads.