Some of our musical learners in Years 9 and 11 had the opportunity to attend a songwriting workshop with a world-renown producer and songwriter, Roo Piggot. Roo is the Founder and Co-creator of Songwork International and works with the world’s leading international schools and colleges offering a range of workshops, one-to-one sessions, and classroom-based curriculum-aligned teaching programs. Private clients include Internationally recognised artists including Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, John Mayer, Billy Ray Cyrus, Guns N’ Roses, Sum 41, Snow Patrol, BTS and many more. Roo has worked with many young artists assisting them to work alongside world famous songwriters and producers around the world and guided them towards careers in music or even towards recording contracts in the UK and LA.

Attending the session were our Year 11 IGCSE Music learners Jack Foo, Danny Sanghera, Jiaying Lin and Nanda Nair; together with Year 9 learners who have chosen IGCSE Music as an option next semester: Felix Barnes, Nazneen Bhatia, Grace Cain, Flynn Carter, Amanat Chhabra, Callum Cowley, Lilly De Geytere, Benson Dong, Samantha Faith Encarnacion, Orson Latimer, Natalie Leung, Jiaran Li, Hanyu Li, Ethan Ovenberger Rimmer,Yiding Wang, and Lucas Yu.

Over the course of the workshop the Year 9 learners explored the craft of writing songs, and in particular how to write lyrics. They were then split into groups and given the task of creating a new song together with chords and a structure of Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus and Chorus (etc). Year 11 learners worked exclusively on their composition coursework for their IGCSE Music exam.

We are very pleased to have Roo work alongside our learners this week and will welcome him back in the future. In addition Roo works privately working with young musicians to assist them record and produce a single and launch the single via Spotify. Roo offers 4 hour sessions for individuals or bands, plus the additional mix down time and tweaking. If your child would be interested in a recording session with Roo please contact me at music@nexus.edu.sg for further details.

Mr Fordham

At Nexus many of our learners play an instrument and participate in the ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) or the Trinity College Music Exams (Classical or Rock and Pop). These don't just offer a platform to perform or an incentive to practise, they provide structure of learning and enhance instrumental and performance skills.

We understand many of our learners take these examinations whether they learn an instrument as part of the Nexus Instrumental Programme or privately outside of school. We would like to start sharing successes and welcome learners and parents to email us when results are received so we can share with our wider community. Many learners are still awaiting results, so if you receive them before our next newsletter please email music@nexus.edu.sg

Below are some recent results, congratulations to all our young musicians!

Full name: Cara Holohan

Year group: 10

Instrument: violin

Grade: 4

Award: Merit

Full name: Maritsa Radich

Year group: 6

Instrument: violin

Grade: 1

Award: Merit

Full name: Blake Lambert

Year group: 5

Instrument: Piano

Grade: 1

Award: Distinction

Full name: Su Hongxiao (Atu)

Year group: 4

Instrument: violin

Grade: 3

Award: Pass

Full name: Nanda nair

Year group: 11

Instrument: voice

Grade: 5

Award: Distinction

Full name: Blake Lambert

Year group: 5

Instrument: Drum Kit

Grade: 2

Award: Merit

Full name: Lilly De Geytere

Year group: 9

Instrument: violin

Grade: 2

Award: Merit