We returned to Treloar School for BSO Resound’s second visit of the year, on Monday 25 November. As it would be our last visit before Christmas, we decided a little festive cheer was called for (albeit, in November!) so we arrived in Christmas jumpers and festive hats; Philip even dressed his marimba in fairy lights.

Each session began with the ensemble playing ‘hoping’ by Alexander Campkin. Students then joined in to form the mighty ‘TreSound’, playing and rehearsing pieces together. In the first two sessions, we rehearsed Bach/Gounod’s Ave Maria continuing on from our previous visit and also played Mohr/Gruber’s Silent Night.

We were all really impressed with how far the Ave Maria had come since our previous visit with so much more clarity and detail from the students. It was also great to be able to coach students with Silent Night, ready for their Christmas performance on 12 December.

In the afternoon, we spent a session with the GCSE Music group, playing the pieces we had in the other sessions but also adding in The Beatles’ I Want to Hold Your Hand. Myself and Alex (BSO Digital Marketing Assistant) even joined in singing harmonies with a student.

We had another fantastic day at Treloar School and loved seeing how far their music playing had come since our last visit in October. It was also lovely to observe friendships initially formed between student and musician at the first visit continuing to grow on our second visit. Seeing and hearing of students taking up new instruments after being inspired by BSO Resound is wonderful and really showed how important this ensemble is and the work that it does.

We’ll see you again in February, Treloar School!