Music is a vital part of life at St Helen’s: from individual performances in morning assembly to Chapel Choir’s daily service to the melodic strains of girls practising, which periodically float across the campus – making music is always happening.

orchestras

St Helen’s boasts many fine instrumentalists, and as membership of the orchestras is based on instrumental standard, large age ranges are, as a result,  quite normal. We are always keen that anyone who wishes to be involved in music-making is able to, regardless of their standard. Many girls are also involved in orchestras run by the county as well as TVYO (Thames Vale Youth Orchestra), and we are also represented at national level in the National Children’s Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra.

wind and brass ensembles

There are now very large numbers of girls playing wind instruments, especially flutes, clarinets and saxophones. As there are only a limited number of orchestral places available to these players, a number of bands and ensembles have been created to give ensemble music-making experience to as many of our instrumentalists as possible.

choirs

At St Helen’s we offer both auditioning and non-auditioning choirs so that everyone who wishes to sing can become involved, although reliability and loyalty are important to every choir! There are choirs for all ages from Year 5 upwards, including the Joint Choral Society with Abingdon School, with whom joint music theatre productions also take place, such as the recent production of Cabaret.

chamber music

Duos, Trios, Quartets and Quintets tend to be created when girls express the wish to form an ensemble and they rehearse with music staff guidance. We hold an annual Chamber Music Concert and Chamber groups make appearances at a variety of occasions in and out of school and have achieved success at local, regional and national level in the National Chamber Music Competition for Schools.

tours

Four highly successful tours have been undertaken in recent years:

In July 2005, Cantores and Chapel Choir gave a concert tour to Paris, in July 2006, First Orchestra, Camerata, and Concert Band toured Belgium, in July 2008 Chapel Choir and First Orchestra toured Tuscany, and in 2010 combined forces from all of these groups travelled to the Black Forest, Germany.

CD recordings of concerts from these tours are available from the music department.

music activities

A wide range of choirs, bands, classes and ensembles are available to girls before school, at lunchtime and after school. Details can be found on pages 12 to 15 of "Beyond"