Stockport Grammar School Celebrates Musical Successes
Senior and Junior pupils at Stockport Grammar School won a trio of top prizes at the Alderley Edge Music Festival.
The Junior School’s Choir performed ‘The Lord Bless You and Keep You’ by John Rutter and ‘Sing a Jubilant Song’ by Dave and Jean Perry to win the section on their first ever visit to the festival.
There was also reason for the Junior School’s Orchestra to cheer as they came joint first in their section of the festival. The boys and girls performed Bizet’s ‘Habanera’, Handel’s Water Music ‘Minuet’ and Jean Allison’s ‘Beryl’.
The Senior School’s Junior Chamber Choir won their category and received the Rowell Cup after gaining a distrinction from the judges for their performances of ‘Day by Day’ by Philip Godfrey and ‘Wayfarin’ Stranger’ by R. Unterseher.
Upper Sixth Form musician Alex Jones also had cause for celebration after one of his compositions was performed by the prestigious BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Last year, Alex’s piece, ‘Sensim mutationem’ (‘Gradual Change’), was selected from hundreds of entries as the winner in the Senior category of BBC Proms’ Inspire Young Composers Competition.
The prize for winning the competition was a commission to write a piece inspired by one of the BBC’s 50 Modern Classics. Alex chose Louis Andriessen’s ‘De Staat’ and created his own piece called ‘Dialektike’ which was performed by members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Alex, who has been composing for six years, is hoping to study Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge as he aims for a career as a performer, composer and researcher.
