Stowe Music Workshop & Masterclass

Ashfold welcomed musicians from Stowe School for a Strings Workshop and Piano Masterclass this week.

On Wednesday 25 January, Ben Andrew (Head of Keyboard at Stowe School) and Chris Windass (Head of Strings at Stowe) brought six extremely talented young musicians from Stowe to give us a Strings workshop for 18 of our string players. The Stowe students split our young players into three groups, teaching them three ensemble pieces, whilst Chris listened to individual players and gave them guidance. The workshop culminated in a Stowe-Ashfold performance of Jupiter, America and Somewhere over the Rainbow. It was fantastic to see such an improvement in such a short amount of time. The children particularly enjoyed being coached by the Stowe students and learnt a lot.

On Thursday 26 January, Ben Andrew returned to run a Piano Masterclass for 13 of our children which involved our pianists playing with Ben in a Saloon full of keyboards. They played an arrangement of Pirates of the Caribbean and Chopsticks (arranged for 4 pianos and 12 players)!

All the children involved benefited hugely from our two days of music making and, most importantly, had a wonderful time! We wish the Stowe students all the best in the future especially Audrey with her Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, and OA, Lewis Bell with his forthcoming Rachmanninov Concerto as well as his future exploits at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.  

Claire Haynes
Director of Music