Schools orchestra prepares for joint concert

Twenty-three pupils from four senior Jesuit schools in England have met at Mount St Mary's College in Derbyshire for an orchestra weekend in preparation for a joint concert on 12 March.

The top musicians came from Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, St Ignatius College in Middlesex and Wimbledon College in south west London, as well as Mount St Mary's itself.  They will form the orchestra at the forthcoming Joint Jesuit Schools' Concert at St Ignatius Church in Stamford Hill, London.  The orchestra will be accompanying the combined schools choirs in Faure's Requiem; the concert will start at 7pm.

Mrs Lucy Kitchener, the Director of Music, said: 'It was a wonderful opportunity for the top musicians from the various Jesuit Schools to come together and share their talents.  The weekend was an exciting venture and one we may well repeat in the future.'

As well as practising as an orchestra, there was time for a bowling trip, a formal dinner and - for those not used to boarding - the experience of boarding at Mount St Mary's.  The pupils also had a choral workshop and sang Mozart's Ave Verum at the Mass with the Mount's boarders on Sunday morning.