News
Year 11 Music Trip: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Back6th November, 2025
On Thursday 6th November, twenty-eight students from our Year 10 and Year 11 GCSE music classes went to the famous Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre, to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra perform.
The day featured professional and incredible performances from a full orchestra, showcasing a range of instruments and a range of scores. The London Philharmonic Orchestra played music from the Baroque era, including famous pieces from professional composers like Bach, pieces from Tchaikovsky from the romantic era and many other famous composers including, Bela Bartok and Steve Reich. Towards the end of the concert, students were particularly excited about the film music that was being played, composed by the legend John Williams, including the theme tune to the films Jaws and Mission Impossible. Students recognised these iconic pieces very quickly!
The concert was very interactive and our students answered lots of GCSE questions around the music and participated in a quiz, where they discussed their knowledge in preparation for their GCSE music exams in a fun interactive way. It was fantastic to hear our students answering the questions about the orchestra with passion and actively participating. In one section of the concert, the director led students in an interactive body percussion challenge where different sections of the audience had to clap the rhythm of the score displayed on the PowerPoint board. Our students worked hard to master this challenge and helped produce an excellent sound as an audience orchestra.
The students were able to experience watching world class musicians and be inspired by their hard work, creativity and impressive musical skills. The students were well-behaved and thoroughly enjoyed the concert and the interactive tasks. The students expressed that their favourite parts were the film music performances and the body percussion tasks. Experiencing this performance and the feelings that came with the music, really helped students put their theory into a practical context and inspired them for their own performances!
Overall, the day was inspiring, helpful towards their GCSEs and one that they enjoyed and will hopefully remember fondly. Thank you Year 10 and 11 music students!
-Miss Pitman, Performing Arts
