“He who sings scares away his woes.” If this saying be true, and I think it is, it would explain the confidence and elation seen in Runnymede pupils from Year 2 to Year 13 after one of our performances on stage. “Music is what feelings sound like” (anon) and as Eliot says, “you are the music while the music lasts.”

Two particularly gifted singers this year have been Rory Thompson and Aditya Rau, who combined their complementary talents in the Senior School Concert to sing in duo “How to save a Life”. Earlier on in the year Rory showed inspiring choreographic ability in the Music Room whilst rehearsing a group fight scene for Mr Bennet’s Classics play. (It’s not easy to die gracefully and convincingly on stage!) Aditya charmed everyone with his piano playing from jazz to the classics. Other members of Year 9 that I would like to mention for their work in music this year are Max Long (drums) and Ciaran Stordy (drums), Alison George (piano), and Julian Arredondo (electric guitar). I have no doubt that music will accompany them throughout life in an intimate way.

Besides being a venue for performing, the Music Room creates an atmosphere conducive to listening. Some pieces are more easily digested than others. Pupils (and adults!) often think that “opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings.”(Robert Benchley) To go beyond the conventions of the art to arrive at its essence, is what we aim to do. In a way, we are trying to be “intellectuals” in listening to music, if, as John Chesson says, “an intellectual is someone who can listen to the ‘William Tell overture’ without thinking of the Lone Ranger.”

Runnymede College is a centre for the external music exams of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and this year, as in previous years, many pupils have sat these exams in piano, voice, violin and saxophone. This would not be possible without the expertise, commitment and enthusiasm of all our peripatetic teachers in school.

Nestor Labuig has led the ensemble to new highs of musicianship, while Adolfo Toyota has continued to run his successful guitar-building workshop for the pupils. As he is leaving Spain, we sadly say goodbye to Simon Peacock, who introduced and made very popular the playing of electric guitar.

Although it may seem a little extreme in its sentiments, I would like to conclude with an apt quotation from Nietzche, who said that “life without music would be a mistake”.