Music

The SMRT Brass Group was invited to play at St Mary Redcliffe Church’s annual Treefest event, in aid of Changes Bristol, and St Mary Redcliffe Community Projects. Students from Y7 to Y13 entertained visitors with a variety of carols, and audience members commented that the music had really captured the Christmas spirit for them.

Thank you to Ben, Lucien, Manu, Benjamin, Matty, Hamish and Mr Stewart for their musical contribution to this event. You can hear an extract of their playing in the video below. If you are interested in learning a brass instrument, or are an existing brass player who would be interested in joining Brass Ensemble, please contact the Music Office for more details.

The SMRT Senior String Ensemble were requested to plays in a church service organised by the High Sheriff of Bristol last month. The service in St Mary Redcliffe Church, was attended by the Lord Lieutenant of Bristol, Judges, and other members of the legal profession.

Sofia Roll-Montero, Michael Alsop, Thomas Golding-Evans, Maya O’Driscoll , Finnley O’Driscoll and Alex Gibberd were directed by our new Violin and Viola teacher Mrs Stewart. If you would like to learn the Violin, please contact the school Music department to request further information.

You can hear their live performance of Palladio by Michael Nyman here:

Our Spanish guitar students and their tutor Mr Ben Spender had the pleasure and privilege of performing at  the British Mandolin and Guitar Federation Rally which was held at St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School in March in the presence of hundreds of guitar enthusiasts, worldwide experts and author Louis de Berniere. Our students performance was very well received by the rally and our students performed at a very high standard.

Thanks to: 

A Schuman
R Lewis
A Temple
M Tilsey
J Muir
S Cadell
M Tekane
D Turner
M Butters (former pupil)
J Hartley

And Y Ji who was sound engineer for the day.

- Mr Hare, Music Teacher.

In July 2013 our school orchestra were asked to perform at the Colston Hall with Bristol’s biggest community choir ‘The Gurt Lush’ directed by our singing teacher Sam Burns. The orchestra is non-auditioning so all of our student musicians were represented from beginner violins to grade 8 tromobonists! We played an integral part of ‘A Romany Journey’ a suite of vibrant Roma gypsy tunes arranged superbly by Sam. The orchestra rehearsed solidly for six months prior to the concert and all of their hard work paid off with a spectacular concert alongside not only the Gurt Lush Choir but also nationally acclaimed Roma band ‘The Gypsy Stars’. Have a look at our video of one of our favourite songs 'Maki Maki’.

Our Carol Service on Monday 19th December was a huge success; the school choir sang a range of music both traditional and contemporary including carols composed by Peter Dyke, Morten Lauridsen and our own director of music, Edward Davies. Here is a recording of Felix Mendelssohn’s Hark the Herald Angels Sing:

Our thanks go to the school choir (all 80 of them!) the school brass ensemble and SMR church organist Andrew Kirk.

Our thanks also to UWE Music Technology students Saoirse Christopherson and Solomon John-Addey for recording and mixing our carol service. To hear all of the items from the service please visit the Music department's soundcloud page at:

https://soundcloud.com/smrt-music-department