Welcome to the Ingenium Academy 2017! We're so excited to finally welcome you all for the start of this year's course. After arrivals on Sunday and a fun and music-filled first two days, it's time for an update on everything we've been getting up to...

 

 

On Sunday our Pastoral Staff were out at airports and Eurostar stations to welcome our first arrivals of Ingenium 2017, ensuring that each student was met with a sign and a smile.

 

 

Once everyone had landed, it was off to Winchester on the coach to unpack, meet everyone and gather for a big welcome sing. This year we were delighted to welcome Joanna Forbes-L'Estrange, former musical director of Grammy-award-winning The Swingle Singers, to lead us in a bluesy rendition of Splanky (as sung by The Real Group).

 

 

Monday morning was a chance for everyone to meet the staff, and then it was straight into morning sessions. The pianists found their practice rooms, and each had a lesson with one of our piano staff to discover what they might work on while they are at Ingenium. Dom Childs took the saxophones to start with a daily warm up, which they will be extending each day to cover new techniques. Tim Redmond tipped our conductors into the deep end with irregular time signatures.

 

 

The orchestra this week is led by Matthew Taylor, who kicked the week off with Beethoven's stirring Egmont Overture. The choir started the course under the able and inspiring direction of Tom Appleton, singing repertoire ranging from William Byrd to Pharrell Williams - and a fascinating piece by John Hearne called The Seagull, complete with seagull effects.

 

After lunch, our Musicianship session was composition. Everyone was split into groups covering jazz composition, theme and variations, and even turning the word 'Winchester' into musical notes. We heard some very creative ideas!

 

 

Thankfully the last of the weekend rain had blown away in time for our evening activity, team building games on the playing field (or "KP") led by our pastoral team. The circuit included a particularly entertaining game of "Human Table-Football".

 

 

 

Musicians of the day
 

Orchestra

Imma was Matthew's choice for Musician of the Day, for taking on the first horn part and playing confidently and excellently.

 

Choir

Singers of the day were Justus and Jonja, for holding down the male parts so well all day.

 

Pianos

Marius was pianist of the day, for giving lovely constructive criticism in group sessions, contributing positive comments but also being able to reflect on his own playing.

 

Saxophones

Player of the day was Laurence, who kept up a positive attitude, giving everything a go and at the same time encouraging others.

 

Conductors

Max was conductor of the day. He opened up to admit he was struggling with something, then worked hard at it and tried it in front of the group - and nailed it! Well done.

 

Composer of the day

A special addition, composer of the day was Samuel. During the composition session he worked hard, contributed loads, and really engaged with the session - and politely said thank-you at the end.

 

Stay tuned for more updates from the Ingenium Blog very soon!