Summer Culture
The musicians have been busy over the summer with a dozen pupils attending Eton Choral Courses and the National Youth Choir courses. This particularly strong group of singers will have honed their technique and we look forward to hearing them take on solo roles at the School in the coming year. Aaron Gruen (Upper Sixth) spent time working with a professional orchestra in Germany.
OSE musicians have been particularly busy over the summer with Glass Animals releasing their latest album How to be a human being to critical acclaim and achieving 200 million downloads for their first album Zaba. Alfie MacGibbon has reached the top 10 playlist for Apple Music and Spotify with his first single and Tom Mitchell has been touring the summer music festivals with Twogood. On the classical side George Parris recorded his third CD for Naxos with his group The Carice Singers.
A talented group of pupils took an original devised drama — Tell Mary I Love Her — to the Edinburgh Festival. Appearance at the Edinburgh Festival has become a regular occurrence in recent years and once again our talented pupils impressed audiences with sophisticated and energetic acting. Most of the cast are going on to study theatre at university or drama school and this experience will be invaluable.
OSE stars of stage and screen have dominated the headlines with Flossie Pugh starring in Lady Macbeth which recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Flossie will miss the premiere as she’s busy filming an action thriller in London with Liam Neeson! Meanwhile Seb de Souza has been busy filming a TV series Recovery Road and Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones fame released a new film — Me before you.
The North Wall has had a busy summer running ArtsLab – two three-week residencies focussing on new writing and, for the first time, opera. Hundreds of young theatre artists were auditioned to take part in the residential programme for emerging talent. Over the three weeks participants were partnered with professionals to explore new ideas and sow the seeds of new work. Two exciting and inspiring performances were given at the end of each course —Congregation and Bluebeard’s Castle.
Neville Creed, Director of Cultural Activities