We are over the moon for A2 student Alexandra Harrison as she is offered places at 4 leading Music Conservatoires, with 3 of them offering her scholarships. This is truly a remarkable achievement.

Alexandra has been student at juniorRNCM for five years, studying viola and violin.  She is also a member of the National Youth Orchestra and has just returned from a winter residency where she performed in various concert venues including the Barbican, Nottingham, Warwick and Liverpool.  She was also a member of The Halle Youth Orchestra and Musica Kirklees, before joining juniorRNCM. She really is an immensely talented individual!

Alexandra applied to study an undergraduate Bachelor of Music at Conservatoire at the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Following a tough application process, which involved an earlier submission deadline for her personal statement, an audition process (playing set repertoire and a contrasting piece, sight reading, aural exercises and musician questions), and an in person interview with the audition panel, Alexandra was offered places at all 4 Conservatoires, and scholarship offers from the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music and Royal Northern College of Music.

I feel very proud and honoured to be offered a place at all four Conservatoires I applied for as well as being offered financial support to study there. Greenhead has ensured I was prepared and organised for the application process as well as being encouraging for the auditions and supportive with the amount of time I have had to be absent through the Autumn.

Quote from Alexandra

Well done Alexandra on this outstanding achievement, we are so proud of you and can’t wait to follow your musical journey in the future.

Congratulations to A1 student Miles Kelly, who has been announced as the winner of the Greenhead College New Music Competition 2021

Open to all students across West Yorkshire aged 18 or below, the Music Competition was designed by the Greenhead College Music Department to create an opportunity for students to be creative during lockdown.  To enter, students were asked to write a piece of music – anything at all from a song, to a piece of music for a string quartet.  

The competition received an outstanding number of entries and the following students made the shortlist: 

• Jerome Dodd (Greenhead College) 
• Xiana Harron (Greenhead College) 
• Miles Kelly (Greenhead College) 
• Oliver Bates (Greenhead College) 
• Tobias Cooper (Greenhead College) 
• Joshua Ellwood (Shelley College) 
• Nathan Webster (Honley High) 

Judging the competition was London based composer, musician and producer Paul Silver, who chose Miles’ song ‘Buzzy Bees in Poppy Fields’ as the winner.  

Paul said: 

“This piece of music really made me smile, took me on a journey and overall gave me the best feel emotionally.”  

Miles’ prize for winning the competition is a £50 Amazon Voucher which he has decided to spend towards an Audio Interface. 

Commenting on his win Miles said: 

“I originally wrote the song as a Valentines Day gift for my girlfriend, Poppy (hence the title and lyrics). Both of us are really pleased with the win and the money will go towards my future music through an audio interface.  

I think I’d like to study physics at university and do something in that field if possible, but if a music career takes off I’ll follow that in a heartbeat. Music and physics are my two big passions and I’ll continue to do both to some degree no matter what I do in the future.”

Simon Jacobs, Head of Music at Greenhead College commented: 

“We were delighted with the response to the New Music Competition, we received a great number of entries in a wide variety of genres. Congratulations to Miles on his outstanding entry, when shortlisting the finalists for judging from Paul Silver I had already privately tipped Miles to win- it is a lovely feel good piece of music.”

Congratulations to Miles, and well done to all students involved.  

Listen to Miles’ song ‘Buzzy Bees in Poppy Fields’ below.  

Greenhead College’s Music Department were lucky enough to welcome the world renowned Ligeti Quartet into college to deliver a workshop and masterclass with our A Level Music students.

Established as one of the UK’s leading ensembles, the Ligeti Quartet are at the forefront of the modern and contemporary music scene so it was an extremely exciting opportunity to have them in college to share some of their best practice with our students.

Throughout the workshop, the Ligeti Quartet performed some of their mesmerising pieces whilst our students learnt of various techniques used in contemporary music, which they will take away with them and use in their own musical endeavours.

Following the workshop our students will now be putting their new knowledge into practice and composing their own string composition, which will be performed and recorded by the Ligeti Quartet on Monday 29^th April.

Simon Jacobs, head of music at Greenhead College commented on the workshop:

‘We can’t thank the Ligeti Quartet enough for the workshop they ran for our students. Their good humoured and relaxed approach, combined with truly inspiring performance, captivated our students in a way that we rarely see. It was an added bonus that each member of the quartet talked about their career and pathway in Music, as this will have provided valuable direction to our students wishing to pursue a career in the subject. Contemporary Music is often a scary and difficult subject for our students- today the Ligeti Quartet made it accessible and engaging- thanks again!’

For more information about the Ligeti Quartet, please visit: https://ligetiquartet.com/

The Greenhead College Big Band and soloist Daisy Cameron had great success at The Great Northern Big Band Jazz Festival held annually in Chester Le Street, County Durham on Sunday 3rd March.

The 3 day long festival celebrates the best Jazz bands throughout the North with live performances on the Friday evening, the open section and competition taking place on the Saturday, and the School and Youth sections on the Sunday.

Performing a diverse programme from Topsy and Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend through to student composer Louis Enright’s new piece- Last Dance, the Greenhead Big Band scooped the award for best programme.

16 year old student Daisy Cameron achieved a great individual victory winning both the special adjudicators award and the prize for best soloist.

Speaking of the success, Greenhead College’s head of music Simon Jacobs commented:

‘I am delighted with the success of the band- with the support of Muisca Kirklees the group continues to go from strength to strength. I am also delighted for Daisy who is a real emerging talent from the Kirklees area.’

You can hear the Big Band (and Daisy) perform at The Greenhead College Spring Concert which will be held on March 27th at 7:30pm in St Paul’s Hall.