Arts

Everyone Can Sing - Like It's Christmas

I would like to personally thank everyone that participated in our Nexus Family Virtual Choir. There is something extremely special to be able to bring all members of our community together through singing and for me the online virtual choir rehearsals were amazing to be part of and lead. I'd like to take the opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone involved. It is the connection and community spirit that drives our families' participation in these projects. Music is a particularly connecting medium and we have missed the singing and music activities at school that we would normally be able to present to you.

If you missed it, you can watch it in our Holiday Tunes Christmas Music video in the next section!

Ms. Clare Lambert - Subject Leader - Music

Holiday Tunes For Our Nexus Families

Yesterday's Advent calendar revealed our very own Carol Concert 'Holiday Tunes for our Nexus Families'. Unable to provide a live concert for you, we do hope that you manage to find the time to sit down as a family, perhaps with some mince pies and a mulled wine/hot chocolate and sing along to our compilation of Carols.

Over the term some of our music classes have focused on learning some Carols and our Music ensembles have also focused on Christmas music. You will find performances from all ages and musical development compiled into this very special online Christmas Carol Concert for you. We have staged our recordings and videos around our school hoping to also give parents a look into our school, after many months of being limited to the entrance doors.

We hope you enjoy each of the performances and perhaps you will sing along too. Many thanks to all the Music team for working with our learners and to our sound and video technicians for compiling the video.

Nursery & Kindergarten Christmas Carols

Due to restrictions against Covid-19, we weren't able to invite parents for our annual Christmas event at Nexus Nursery & Kindergarten. But this didn't stop us from singing! Following the current safety measures, each learner had an opportunity to record their singing individually using a microphone. We wove all these young singer's voices together to create a Christmas carol for parents to listen to at home. We hope this lovely video puts a smile on your faces and Christmas cheer in your hearts.

Drama News!

This term in Drama, Year 9 learners have had fun exploring Greek theatre and how to become a Chorus! They studied extracts from some of Roald Dhal's famous poems and brought them to life using choral speaking, specific gestures and tableaux. Check out some of their work by clicking here!

Meanwhile, the Year 8 learners have been discovering the art of Foley this term, how directors and sound engineers use sound effects, sound track and soundscape to enhance a performance. Have a listen by clicking here to how one group have created a fun radio play using these elements!

Drama at Nexus offers learners the opportunity to develop a passion for the theatre while also developing many transferable skills necessary for all walks of life. It provides learners with the opportunity to acquire knowledge and experience of this subject from both a theoretical and a practical perspective, whilst developing skills and talents in the theatre making process. We are thrilled to be making use of our two fantastic Black Box studios and excited for the new term to start when we may be able to share some of our work with a wider audience.

Lessons Without Walls

Lesson Without Walls - Drum Kit .mp4

Our season of 'Lessons without Walls' has been an amazing success. Each Friday morning our school community has been welcomed to our campus with music ranging from all ages and musical development. This morning ended the season with some joyous Christmas tunes from the three music stations at our school entrances.

Over the past number of weeks we have also enjoyed performances from:

IB musician - James Richards
IGCSE Musicians
Drum Kit Players
Pianists
Christmas Music

Thank you to all who have participated, we hope this has been a valuable experience for you and we hope to bring more 'Lessons without Walls' opportunities that boost your confidence and enhance your technical playing skills.

Please click on the links for some examples of our 'Lessons Without Walls'.

IGCSE Y10 Lessons without Walls.mp4

Eco Cafe Live

Being serenaded by beautiful music whilst you enjoy your lunch! We ended last week with IB Diploma music learner James Richard holding his performance lesson at the Eco Cafe. James performed a range of pieces from Beethoven to Soler bringing joy to all that had the opportunity to listen.

We would like to continue with this concept next term and invite learners who would be interested to hold their own performance lesson at our Eco Cafe to begin by practising a number of pieces of music and contacting Ms Lambert or Mr Fordham to arrange your own special 'Eco Cafe Live'.

Year 3 UOI - Culture Music Video

Despite social distancing, a few weeks back, our Year 3 learners were still able to hold a Mini Exhibition and share learnings from their unit exploring a variety of cultures around the world and how they each express their art.

Learners from across the primary school scanned QR codes linked to the Year 3 presentations. Due to restrictions against Covid-19, we weren't able to invite parents for our usual Mini Exhibition. However, we did prepare a music video including photos and videos of the many celebrations and explorations of cultures learners participated in as well as a lovely tune 'Tell Me Your Story' to demonstrate our learning in Term 2. We hope you enjoy the video!

Music Recital Recordings

Last week, we recorded our Primary and Secondary Instrumental Music Recitals. With over 80 performances this was a huge task however we have successfully filmed and taken an audio recording all of our young musicians in our new auditorium. We are pleased that this term we were able to provide a more realistic performance platform even if we were unable to accommodate an audience!

We are currently editing and mixing the final cut and will bring these to you early in the new year, however look out over Christmas for a special 'Christmas Recital' edition of those musicians that chose to perform a Christmas song! You will find these released on our school's social media pages this holiday season.

Please see below a glimpse of our singers recording. This is the first time that they have been able to sing for us due to Covid-19 restrictions. Currently it remains only 5 unmasked singers on stage at a time!

A huge thank you to everyone that demonstrated commitment and enthusiasm when learning an instrument as well as showing confidence and being a risk taker by putting yourself out there! A special thanks to all our amazing instrumental tutors that support our learnings weekly through their lessons and opportunities.

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