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Music, Drama and Performance
All pupils at St John’s College are warmly encouraged to take part in music making. The School has a rich musical tradition, and provides outstanding opportunities for pupils to enjoy and excel in solo and group performance. The School has a number of ensembles including:
• Boys' Cathedral Choir
• Junior Girls' Cathedral Choir
• Senior Girls' Cathedral Choir
• Choral Society
• Sixth Form Close Harmony
• Senior School Close Harmony
• Concert Orchestra
• Training Orchestra
• Flute Choir
• Brass Ensemble
• Recorder Consort
• String Quartet.
Extra-curricular Music: /f/Rehearsal_schedule_2011-12.pdf
Music plays a central role in a child's intellectual, social, moral and spiritual development and pupils at St John's College, Cardiff enjoy a broad and fulfilling repertoire. Music enables pupils to develop invaluable personal attributes such as self-discipline, self-reliance, concentration, initiative, imagination, an attention to detail, sensitivity, and aesthetic judgement, as well as linguistic, interpretative and cognitive skills. Furthermore, on a social level, singing in a choir or playing in an ensemble fosters friendship, team-work and communication skills, interdependence and leadership. All in all, this paves the way for a very bright and successful future.
• For a copy of the Music Departmental Handbook, please email Dominicneville@cantab.net
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The Cathedral Choirs
Please follow this link to the Cathedral Choirs' own website: http://www.cardiffcathedralchoir.org
Please email Mr Dominic Neville (Director of Choral Music) for more details: dominicneville@cantab.net
*Please select the link below to hear the Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral Choir's performance of George Dyson's Magnificat in F from its video and CD recording, Panis Angelicus:
/f/08_Dyson_-Magnificat_in_F.mp3
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The Concert Orchestra
 The School’s reputation for musical excellence encompasses its many instrumental ensembles including its award-winning Concert Orchestra (a recent finalist in the Welsh Proms Schools Competition). All pupils are warmly encouraged to take part in the superb opportunities available, to enjoy and excel in solo and group performance.
The thriving Training Orchestra performs to a high standard and gives beginners the chance to play in a full orchestra, preparing them to audition for the Concert Orchestra. The Concert Orchestra (grade 5 - diploma standard) has transformed into an outstanding ensemble, and it has recently given performances in St David’s Hall. It rehearses twice weekly and performs three annual evening concerts, all of which are highly popular with staff, pupils, parents and relatives alike. The Concert Orchestra has performed further afield, on tour in Bruges (Belgium), and recent repertoire includes:
Schubert: Unfinished Symphony, Bruch: Kol Nidrei, Elgar: Serenade, Charpentier: Te Deum, Beethoven: Romanza No. 2 in F (Opus 50), Elgar: Nimrod, Wagner: Mastersingers' Overture, Parry: Jerusalem, Hoddinott: Welsh Dances, Fauré: Pavane, Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier, Vaughan Williams: Rhosymedre, Handel: Ombra mai fu, Bach: Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor, Bach: Brandenburg Concerto Number Two.
A professional DVD is available of the Orchestra's latest Concert (please contact the College Office for more details).
Visiting professional musicians give tuition in voice and a broad range of instruments. For more information, please contact the Head of Music, Mrs. Diana Neville.
Members of the School's ensembles have enjoyed numerous musical excursions, attending concerts at venues such as St David's Hall and The Royal Albert Hall, and visiting places of musical interest such as the birthplace of Sir Edward Elgar. In 2007, the Concert Orchestra was a prize winner at the final of the Lloyds TSB Welsh Proms Competition at St David's Hall.
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News
• The Awards Ceremony and Concert - Mon 9 January 2012.
Congratulations to the R16 GCSE students, Lower Sixth, Upper Sixth & former Sixth Form students who received awards for academic, musical and sporting excellence, and to the many musicians whose outstanding performances enhanced the evening even further.
Please click on the link below to view the Awards Ceremony & Concert programme:
/f/Awards_Ceremony_Jan_2012.pdf
• Sixth Form Close Harmony perform at Glamorgan University Carol Service at the Atrium - Tues 6 December 2011.
The Sixth Form Close Harmony Group were invited to sing at Glamorgan University's Carol Service in the grand surroundings of The Atrium, performing traditional carols such as Away in a Manger and In the Bleak Mid Winter to the students and staff at the University. On the lighter side, the Sixth Formers also performed arrangements of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and Paul Mcartney's Wonderful Christmastime.
• Cathedral Choir Christmas Concert, St David's Hall - Tues 29 November 2011.
The girls, boys and gentlemen of the Cathedral Choir performed an oustanding concert of traditional and less-familiar Carols to an audience of around 750 people at St David's Hall, Cardiff. Many congratulations to the Choir, soloists and to Noa Gabay for her exquisite performances of works for solo harp by Glinka and Zipoli. Please click on the following link to view the concert programme: /f/SDH_programme_Christmas_2011.pdf
• Archdiocesan Festival of Music: A Year of Catholic Education - St David’s Hall, Cardiff: 7pm - Thurs 3 November 2011.
Our orchestra and choir led a chorus of 200 secondary pupils and 100 instrumentalists from Catholic High Schools in Wales and Herefordshire, in a magnificent celebration at one of the UK's premier concert venues: St David's Hall.
Alongside a remarkably impressive performance of Handel's Passacaglia in G minor by our harpist Noa Gabay in R14, we heard wonderful performances of Walton's Crown Imperial, Parry's I was glad (orchestrated by Joseph Evans in R16), Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, Rutter's Gaelic Blessing, and two hymns including For all the Saints (arranged by Jerry Zhou in Upper Sixth), all led superbly by Kathryn Prior in Lower Sixth.
With thanks to everybody, all choristers, instrumentalists and colleagues for all the help, support and musicianship that helped make the occasion such a special and memorable one.
• R14 & Sixth Form Music Trip to Elgar's birthplace - Thurs 7 July 2011.
On Thursday 7th July, Sixth form and R14 music students undertook an excursion to Malvern to see the birthplace of the famous English composer Edward Elgar. They watched a presentation on Elgar and were able to view some of his original scores, before visiting the cottage where the composer spent much of his life and the modest graveyard where he was buried. They then climbed to the top of an old Iron Age hilltop in the sunshine, while eating ice creams, for a fantastic view over the Malvern Hills, a sight which provided inspiration for many of Elgar's compositions. (Isabelle Thomas, Lower Sixth Form student).
• Sixth Form Close Harmony Outreach Workshops - leading secondary pupils from Wales and Herefordshire in rehearsing for the Festival of a Year in Catholic Education - Tues 28 - Wed 29 June 2011.
This week the Sixth Form Close Harmony Group travelled to St Joseph's High School (Newport) on Tuesday and St David's Sixth Form College (Cardiff) on Wednesday to lead secondary pupils from across South Wales and Herefordshire in rehearsals for the Festival of a Year in Catholic Education (which will be held at St David's Hall on Thursday 3 November 2011). Our Sixth Formers received a very warm welcome from staff and pupils, and were especially pleased to perform songs by the Beach Boys and Michael Jackson to rapturous applause! Further choral workshops will be led by Mr Dominic Neville in schools across South Wales in the Autumn term, as well as orchestral workshops led by Mrs Diana Neville and our Concert Orchestra.
• Sixth Form Close Harmony perform a short concert of songs by Michael Jackson and The Beach Boys for the Nursery and Infant School and parents - Mon 27 June 2011.
• Cathedral Choir sings Parry's I was glad for Archbishop Stack's installation at Metropolitan Cathedral - Mon 20 June 2011.
• Xiamen Youth Orchestra performs at Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral - Mon 6 June 2011.
Monday 6th June, 7pm
Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral, Charles St. Cardiff (next to M&S)
ADMISSION FREE.
This full scale symphony orchestra has embarked on a concert tour of twinned cities in Cardiff and in the Netherlands.
The orchestra was a guest of the City of Cardiff and of St John's College Cardiff, (Old St Mellons) its special host. The connection is that Jerry Zhuo, a 6th form student at St John's College and an outstanding Double Bass player in the College Orchestra, is a former member of the XIAMEN YOUTH ORCHESTRA.
This has been a wonderful opportunity to bring together two educational communities from our twinned cities, St John's College and the Xiamen Foreign Language School. Each has an outstanding symphony orchestra playing a wide range of concert repertoire.
The orchestra performed outstandingly at their magnificent concert on Monday evening. St John's College is very pleased to welcome Xiamen Youth Orchestra to Cardiff.
Please click on the following link to view the concert programme:/albums/album_image/8162740/7352230.htm
• Noa Gabay wins 2nd prize in the Year 7-9 Urdd Harp competition!
Congratulations to Noa on this outstanding achievement.
• Spring Orchestra Concert, School Hall, 7.00pm - Thurs 5 May 2011.
Many congratulations to all of the many musicians involved in the magnificent concert on Thursday evening. Thank you also to the many parents and grandparents who supported the concert. Please click on the following link to view the concert programme:/f/Spring_Concert_2011.pdf
• Cathedral Choir Concert at St David’s Hall: Handel Messiah - Tues 12 April 2011.
The boys, girls and gentlemen of the Cathedral Choir performed Handel's masterpiece with orchestra to a very large audience at St David's Hall.
• Choir Schools Association Sports Festival at Llandaff Cathedral - Wed 2 March.
On Wednesday 2 March, the girl and boy Cathedral Choristers took part in an immensely enjoyable day of football, netball and choral evensong, hosted this year, by Llandaff Cathedral School. Congratulations to the boys who reached the final of the Football Plate Cup and to the girls who performed very well against strong competition in the netball tournament. The choristers sang splendidly with the 150 choristers from the cathedral choirs of Bristol, Exeter, Hereford, Llandaff, Wells, Worcester, and the choristers of Tewkesbury Abbey and Magdalen College, Oxford.
• Cathedral Choir tour to Paris including a concert at Nôtre Dame Cathedral and The Madeleine - Wed 16 - Fri 18 February 2011:
It was a magnificent trip, and the choir sang superbly before an audience of well over 400 at the Madeleine, and an estimated audience of 1000 at Nôtre Dame. There were so many other highlights from the excursions too, including the amazing views from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, and the wonderful cruise on the River Seine. A diary of the trip will follow shortly.
Arc de Triomphe - Thursday 17 February
Finn Mitchell (R9): 'I most enjoyed going on top of the Arc de Triomphe. My Dad and I counted 276 steps but the guide book said there were 290.'
Joel Neelankavil (R11): 'It was really tall. The best bit was looking through the telescope.'
Phoebe Utting (R15): 'The views and the shops were wonderful.'
Emma Cooney (R15): 'I really enjoyed the street performers and entertainers.'
Madeleine Concert - Thursday 17 February (to an audience of 400 people)
Michael Diamond (R13): 'My favourite experience of the trip was singing in the Madeleine.'
Ben Dimond (R11): 'The acoustic was amazing. I particularly enjoyed reflecting on the last chord of Hosanna to the Son of David as it echoed around the Church.'
River Cruise on the Seine - Thursday 17 February
Daniela Mizzen (R14): 'The trip has been amazing; particularly the river cruise, the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower. Everyone has got on so well together.'
Jennifer Son (R15): 'The boat trip was really impressive.'
Nôtre Dame Concert - Friday 18 February (to an estimated audience of 1000 people)
Ross Lisney-Wilson (R14): 'Singing in Nôtre Dame was an unforgettable experience.'
Abhinaba Guha (R14): 'The city's architecture - the Louvre in particular - was stunning.'
Daniel Jones (R13): 'I'd love to come back here in the future.'
• Harrison Denner (U6th) and the Concert Orchestra performing Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, Movt. 2 at the recent Christmas Concert and Awards Ceremony - Dec 2010: http://www.rachman.stjohnscollege.info/
Boy & Girl Cathedral Choristers in BBC's Doctor Who
The boy & girl Cathedral Choristers appeared and sang in 'Christmas Special' of BBC’s Doctor Who with David Tennant, Bernard Cribbins & Claire Bloom. The episode was aired Christmas 2009, and was David Tennant’s last. Congratulations to all the choristers.
Dutch Choral Exchange
In Autumn 2006, the Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral Choir undertook a choral exchange project with the Choir of St Bavo's Cathedral in Haarlem (a leading choir school in the Netherlands). In October 2007, the Dutch Choir returned to the United Kingdom for a busy tour, which included a concert at Merton College, Oxford. The highlight of the trip was a concert performed by the combined forces of St Bavo’s Cathedral Choir, the Metropolitan Cathedral Choir and Llandaff Cathedral Choral Society (both of which are conducted by Dominic Neville), featuring Thomas Tallis’ magnificent 40-part motet, Spem in Alium.
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Pupils have the opportunity to be involved in the staging of the whole school productions and cooperation between the English, Music and Junior departments have created recent successes such as the highly successful 'Evening of Victorian Entertainment' and 'Bugsy Malone'.