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Clubs/Ensembles
Clubs/Ensembles
Music is a massive part of life at Borlase. Our vision is simple: to provide an outstanding extra-curricular programme which is inclusive for all, responding to the students' needs and stretching their abilities and ambitions. We are therefore proud of the range and quality of the musical opportunities that we offer. Our extracurricular programme features a large number of student and teacher led choirs, ensembles, orchestras and bands, with up to twenty clubs taking place every week. These normally include our 80-strong senior choir Cantorum and our 70-strong junior vocal group Youth Voices; a Symphony Orchestra, Senior Strings Orchestra and Concert Band; a Senior and Junior Jazz Band; a Rock Club; a Gospel Choir, Chapel Choir, Barbershop group and all-male vocal ensemble Madriguys; smaller chamber ensembles including String Quartet, Saxophone Ensemble, Flute Choir, Brass Ensemble and Clarinet Collective; further student-led initiatives including a Guitar Ensemble, and an annual musical production, which often features in excess of 100 students. Recent productions include Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, Loesser's Guys and Dolls, Porter's Anything Goes and Menken's Beauty and the Beast. Please find below our most recent extracurricular clubs timetable.
All of these groups showcase their hard work regularly in events throughout the year, with highlights including our annual Autumn, Senior and Junior Concerts, Rocktober and Summer Soundwaves contemporary events, and the very special Christmas Carol Services in All Saints' Church, Marlow. Students are also encouraged to get involved as soloists, or in small chamber groups, in our Autumn and Spring Chamber Concerts, and every year ensembles/choirs from the school perform in events in the local area. Recent highlights include Cantorum, Chapel Choir, Gospel Choir and Barbershop performing alongside Ascot Brass in All Saints' Church, Marlow as part of the Marlow Rotary Club's Annual Charity Concert, and the Gospel Choir performing alongside Taplow Girls' Choir and the Becky High Chorale in a concert at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead.
Music at Borlase is for everyone. This is never more clearly on display than during the triennial House Music competition in which students from across all year groups and all ability levels perform to win points and glory for their House. The winners of the 2023 House Music competition were Saxons.
"The performances were really committed and musical, with a most impressive range of periods and styles, and it was good to see so many student-led ensembles... few secondary schools have anything to match the range and quality of what we enjoyed."
"The performances were really committed and musical, with a most impressive range of periods and styles, and it was good to see so many student-led ensembles... few secondary schools have anything to match the range and quality of what we enjoyed."
Audience member at the Borlase Choirs & Ascot Brass Marlow Rotary Club concert in All Saints' Church, Marlow,
Oct 2019
"I just wanted to mail and say thank you so much for the Autumn Concert. I was amazed our son joined Youth Voices and has continued to do so; he really loves it...he is just loving music and having watched the concert I can understand why. Thank you so much for inspiring him, the concert was amazing - as a non-musical person I loved every joyful second and seeing our son involved was amazing."
"I just wanted to mail and say thank you so much for the Autumn Concert. I was amazed our son joined Youth Voices and has continued to do so; he really loves it...he is just loving music and having watched the concert I can understand why. Thank you so much for inspiring him, the concert was amazing - as a non-musical person I loved every joyful second and seeing our son involved was amazing."
Parent audience member at the Autumn Concert, November 2021
Covid-19: The Music Department's Extracurricular Programme, March 2020 - July 2021
Covid-19: The Music Department's Extracurricular Programme, March 2020 - July 2021
We were very pleased to offer a range of Music activities for all year groups during the Covid pandemic, particularly from September 2020. We worked hard to ensure these activities met all the necessary guidance and requirements, and our amended extracurricular timetable included opportunities for all instrumentalists/singers across the school. Our Peripatetic Music Service was also up and running, with peripatetic staff teaching face-to-face again on site, or online via our school system. We believe student opportunities for performance are vital, whether for development of musical skill or for well-being. We were therefore very excited to be able to undertake three major events during the year 2020-21, including a socially-distanced Carol Service in All Saints' Church, Marlow, a drive-in Jazz Concert at Marlow Rugby Club and a spectacular Summer Concert in Higginson Park, working with JAM Theatre and Alfresco Theatre.
The videos below present the Music Department's extracurricular highlights of the past few years, in addition to some of our BorlaseMusic@Home virtual performances created during the lockdown of March-July 2020.
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