Summer Concert, ARSM success and Farewells

As the Summer Term drew to a close, we celebrated the very best of Canford Music with a wonderful Summer Concert on Wednesday 26^th June.

This sell out concert involved over 100 pupils and staff with a full programme incorporating choirs, orchestras and bands.  The main Canford orchestra opened the evening with a wonderful performance of Danźon No. 2 by Arturo Márquez and the varied repertoire ranged from toe tapping classics from the Wind Orchestra and Concert Band ‘The Bare Necessities’ by Terry Gilkyson, arr. Paul Murtha and ‘Copacabana’ by Barry Manilow, arr. Marcel Saurer to spellbinding renditions of ‘For lo, I raise up’ by C.V. Stanford and ‘The Twelve’ by William Walton from the Chapel and Chamber Choirs respectively.  The theme from ‘Monsters Inc.’ by Randy Newman and ‘Whiplash’ by Hank Levy were expertly performed by the Jazz Band and the concert ended with a show stopping finale by the Jazz Band with Orchestral Strings of ‘New York, New York’ by Kander and Ebb and ‘Don’t Rain on my Parade’ by Jule Styne.

While there were further musical celebrations at Speech Day and the Leavers’ Service before term ended, this Summer Concert was a fitting chance to say farewell to Director of Music Christopher Sparkhall and Assistant Director of Music James Aiken.  We wish them both well for the future and thank them for all they have achieved in inspiring pupils and developing Music across the school.

This was also an opportunity to celebrate significant examination success for our talented musicians, including 9 ARSM diplomas and 17 Grade 8s by the current Upper Sixth, some of whom are pictured below on the night of the concert:

In an epilogue to the concert programme, Christopher Sparkhall reflected:

“I hope that anyone who has enjoyed hearing Canford’s music over the past 25 years will agree that there have, nonetheless, been many rather splendid musical sandcastles built. There have been concerts of brilliance, performances of excellence and music of, at times, near professional quality. We have always aspired not so much to sandcastles as to sand sculptures! Looking at some ‘measurable’ statistics, this year’s U6 hold, between them, 9 ARSM diplomas and 17 grade 8s. They are a brilliant group, but their predecessors were not dissimilar. Since the ARSM diploma was introduced in 2017, some 40 Canfordians have left with this university-level qualification. Meanwhile a quick look at the A level results over the 19 years of my time as Director of Music tells me that 73% of those taking this exam here achieved an A or A* grade. Fully 50% achieved the highest grade available to them at the time they took that exam. The national average is just 5%. Expert musical craftsmanship and much impressive achievement has been readily on display through the five generations of Canfordians I have been privileged to educate.”

Headmaster Ben Vessey commented:

“This was Mr Sparkhall’s final Canford Summer Concert after 25 years as Director of Music.  Chris’s passion, care and commitment has had a considerable impact on so many Canfordians over his time here and we all thank him very much for his commitment and dedication to the development of Canford Music.   As a former pupil wrote:  ‘It is hard to imagine Canford without him; harder still to imagine a teacher who had a more positive impact on a student than Mr Sparkhall had on me.’”

‘Watch the recording of the concert at this link on the dedicated Canford Music YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzFg5zorNis