It is pleasing to see the number of motivated students at Britannica who are self-organising music projects and making good use of rehearsal spaces around the school. This week’s Secondary assembly featured a number of performances by students who have rehearsed work to a high standard in their free time. Happily, we also saw several new faces presenting pieces for the first time this academic year.

The show opened with C’Ching (Year 6), who sang Aviva’s Blame it on the kids beautifully and was followed by Alysa (Year 9), whose rendition of Telemann’s Flute Sonata in F major was both confident and elegant.

Next, we found ourselves enthralled by David Yang’s (Year 8) highly technical and passionate ukulele playing. David is one of the rising stars in the music department and will soon feature as lead singer in Mr Benson’s new ASA rock band, a group which began life this term and includes some very promising musicians from Years 7-9.

Our show was rounded out by two band performances. Inevitably Tae Yeon was involved, and his assortment of talented Year 11 students gave us a wholly unexpected rendition of a little-known Rick Astley number. Fei Ling, Selina (Year 13), Annie (Year 12) and Vivian (Year 9), then confidently headlined with a rousing performance of theme music from 打上花火.

In other performance news, a special mention should also go to Ms. Fu and her superb team for the Chinese Culture Week performances, which included not just music, but dance and drama set pieces from across the school. Many congratulations to all the students who took part in these delightful shows, which were even more impressive for the impossibly short timeframe in which they were created.