12 young Hazlegrove musicians joined an orchestra of 300 for a day of Space Odyssey

On Thursday 5 October, 12 Hazlegrove musicians headed off to Downe House, near London, for an Orchestral Day.

"In the morning, we joined around 250 other young musicians to sight-read a piece, ‘Space Adventure’, that none of us had seen before. Those of us who found the piece easier were helping others to follow the music. After we had been through it a few times, we divided into sections to practice further. When we came back together, we had the opportunity to try out a brand new piece that had been written by one of the staff at Downe House especially for the day. It was called ‘Aurora’s Foxtrot’ and was quite jazzy!

After a break, those of us who were Grade V and above joined together to be part of a ‘masterclass’ band. There were 12 musicians, and four of us were from Hazlegrove! The piece was a Grade 7/8 piece, so gave us a real challenge, but we had members of the Senior School who were Grade 8 on each instrument helping us. This was probably the most enjoyable bit of the day, even though we found it really tough. At the end of the morning, we came back together to run through all the pieces before lunch (sausages and mash – yummy!). Finally, we joined with Downe House students to create an orchestra of about 300 people, and put everything together in a concert which was recorded for YouTube.

In the middle of the concert, they announced some awards for outstanding contributions on the day. We were very proud to receive two of these: I was awarded the Best Masterclass Musician, and Harriet received the Best Percussionist! We were very proud to represent Hazlegrove at this event." By Sam L

"I really enjoyed the Orchestral Day at Downe House School. There were times when we were all together as an orchestra and times when we were in our section. My favourite piece of music was Star Wars. The staff and girls were really friendly, and the food was great. I had a good time and really enjoyed the experience. I think it was really useful for us to play in a big orchestra with lots of other schools that we have never met before." Harriet J

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