Head's Newsletter 14 July 2022

MUSIC NEWS

Tiffin Battle of the Bands 2022 The preliminary round began with performances given by twelve different Year 9 bands who had prepared a range of songs

in their music lessons during the final half term of the academic year. The cover songs ranged from Imagine Dragons ’ Demons and Radioactive, through George Ezra ’ s Shotgun and Oasis ’ Wonderwall, to Guns n Roses ’ Sweet Child of Mine. Five of these twelve bands went through to the final round. The competition was, however, not limited to pupils in Year 9 and, later that day, the preliminary round continued with a range of Year 7 - 13 bands and soloists who had prepared their performances during lunchtimes and after school. The final began with a welcome to our guest adjudicator Kurt Phillips, a drummer who works in the studio and on tour with artists including Ben Selley (Concept/X Factor), Lauren Thalia (Britain's Got Talent), Peter Howarth (The Hollies / Cliff Richard), Haunts, Kilkovec, and Richard Jacobs. Outstanding performances were given by the Year 9 band finalists, followed by Y7 - 13 bands performing Can ’ t Stop, Three Lions, Pavane and Mirror, alongside soloists Toby, Marcus, Calan, Nad, Nik, Arjan and Tye performing songs which ranged from My Shot and Sign of the Times to Maybe This Time and Fly Me To The Moon. Our adjudicator Kurt was impressed by the performances, giving many special mentions to bands such as Andrew, Arthur, Rohan and Ronald who performed an extremely impressive original composition, and soloists such as Nik (for his especially stylish Hotel California guitar solo) and Marcus (for his impressive Alpha House // Bando rap). Finally, prizes were awarded to the very deserving winners: 3 rd to Calan for his performance of ‘ My Shot ’ from Hamilton, 2 nd to Arjun for ‘ Maybe This Time ’ and 1 st to Nad, Sian, Tom, Ari, and Eric for their remarkably convincing ‘ Sweet Child o ’ Mine ’.

Tiffin choirs record with Joe Hisaishi Members of the Tiffin Boys ’ Choir and Tiffin Children ’ s Chorus have featured recently in a recording of the music of Joe Hisaishi, internationally renowned composer of over 100 film scores and solo albums, including Spirited Away (2001), Fireworks (1997) and The Wind Rises (2013). Joe Hisaishi himself directed the recording which took

place at the church of St. Giles in the Barbican complex. Leading up to the recording, choir members attended rehearsals at weekends and after school to learn the challenging three and four part choral music, as well as develop their pronunciation of the Japanese text with the aid of the production company ’ s language coach. After three intense days of recording at St. Giles ’ on 9 th , 10 th and 11 th June, the engineers had the takes they needed. We now look forward to hearing the audio and video recordings which are due for release later this year.