Time: 19:30, Monday 19 October 2009
Venue: Forbidden City Concert Hall, Zhongshan Park, Beijing
Ticket price: RMB 380, 180, 120, 90, 60, 30
Ticket hotline: +86 010-65598285, 11185-5

Howell’s School, Llandaff and music

Howell’s School, Llandaff is located in a suburb of Cardiff, the capital of Wales (U.K.). It educates girls from the age of 3 to 18 but boys are also admitted to the Sixth Form College (16-18 years). Howell’s is a member of the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), the largest organisation of independent schools in the UK.  It has accepted boys into its Sixth Form College, for students aged 16 to 18 years, since 2005. All the schools in the GDST have a reputation for consistently high academic standards, superb pastoral support and extensive extracurricular programmes. Students are encouraged to cultivate a lively intellectual curiosity and a wide range of interests and life skills, successfully preparing them for life in a rapidly changing global society. The school aims to nurture independent thought, imagination, a sense of community and a concern for others. On leaving the Sixth Form College, almost all the students go on to universities or to other institutions of higher education

Founded in 1860, Howell’s School Llandaff has a long and distinguished tradition of nurturing excellence. Its name comes from a rich merchant, Thomas Howell, son of a Welshman, who left a substantial sum of money to the Drapers’ Company in London for the benefit of orphan girls. He died in 1540 and his intention was to provide dowries for the orphans’ marriage. So much money accumulated in the fund that two schools for girls were founded in Wales by the Drapers’ Company in 1860, one in South Wales at Llandaff and the other in North Wales at Denbigh.  

Howell’s is regarded as the leading academic school in Wales. All students, from the age of three to eighteen, are encouraged to become confident, independent learners. With its first-class facilities for music, sports, drama, art, design and information technology, the school provides an exceptional all-round education. It offers an exciting and stimulating range of activities which allows the students to develop talents in many areas. In order to encourage a wide understanding of other cultures, the learning of foreign languages is encouraged. Optional classes in Mandarin were introduced in the Junior and Senior schools in 2007.

The thriving Music Department provides over 300 individual music lessons weekly in the Senior School.  The choirs, orchestras and chamber ensembles follow a busy schedule including local concerts, competitions and festivals. Regular highlights are the performances in the carol service at Christmas in Llandaff Cathedral and the Senior School and Summer Concerts. The school’s musicians also raise funds for local and international charities such as Save the Children and UNICEF.

One of four school choirs, the Senior Girls’ Choir consists of forty enthusiastic members from 15 to 18 years of age. They have performed at a range of venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Festival Hall, and Cadogan Hall in London, Llandaff Cathedral, St David’s Hall, Cardiff and the Wales Millennium Centre, also in Cardiff. The choir has enjoyed successes in competitions and has performed with many eminent artistes including the BBC Singers, the London Adventist Chorale, Crispian Steele Perkins, Karl Jenkins, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Aled Jones, the King’s Singers, Owen Arwel Hughes, Sir James and Lady Galway, Sir Willard White and Hayley Westenra. The choir has appeared on television and in 2007 produced a C.D., Let’s Celebrate Christmas, in conjunction with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which received excellent reviews.

Liz Phillips Director of Music

Mrs Elizabeth Phillips is the Director of Music at Howell’s School, Llandaff. She was born and educated in Swansea, South Wales. From an early age she enjoyed music and showed particular promise as a singer. She graduated from the University of Wales, Cardiff, with a B.A. Honours degree.

Mrs Elizabeth Phillips

Elizabeth was subsequently awarded a Welsh Arts Scholarship to study singing at the Welsh College of Music and Drama where she gained a distinction in the Advanced Performers’ Course. She was awarded the Morfydd Owen Prize, the Della Windsor Memorial Prize and Oratorio Prize, the Pernod Prize and the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. As a soprano soloist, Elizabeth has enjoyed performing in numerous concerts at home and abroad, and has appeared on radio and television. She has worked with and taken part in master-classes with Sir Peter Pears, Paul Hamburger and Ilse Wolf, Doreen Rao, Michael Brewer, Jean Stanley Jones and Sir Charles Mackerras. She is a member of the BBC National Chorus of Wales.

Elizabeth has combined her love of singing with a career of teaching. For the last eighteen years she has been the Musical Director of Howell’s School, Llandaff. During her career she has transmitted her enthusiasm for music to thousands of young people, many of whom have gone on to study the subject at a higher level. In 2005 she was a finalist in the Teacher of the Year Award. Elizabeth has been responsible for developing the outstanding reputation of music at the school.  During her time at Howell’s School, Elizabeth has coordinated and produced a wide variety of concerts and performances, all of which she conducts. The Senior Girls’ Choir has had successes in competitions, appeared on television, recorded a C.D. and performed with world-famous artistes.  Since the admission of boys to the school’s Sixth Form College in 2005, the range of musical activities has expanded further and Elizabeth has been the Musical Director of two very successful musicals, My Fair Lady in February 2007 and Oliver! in February 2009.

Programme

Choir
Veni Domine Mendelssohn
The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23)Schubert
We love the place where thine honour dwells Brahms
Soloist
Concerto in Eb  Bellini
Myfanwy Price (Oboe)    

Choir
For The Beauty Of The EarthJ. Rutter
The Wedding Ring G Russell – Smith
Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day arr J Rutter
Soloist
Mozart
Angharad Thomas (Bassoon)

Choir
Deryn Y BwnB Hughues
Adiemus K Jenkins
Wind Instrumental

Choir
Bridge Over Troubled WatersP Simon
Rhythm Of Life C Coleman
Soloists
Can’t Help Loving That Man Of Mine      Hamerstein & Kern
Harriet Taylor (Soprano)
Summertime Gershwin
Fiona Dakin(Soprano)

Choir
You’ll Never Walk AloneR Rodgers
Joyful Joyful Beethoven arr M Warren
We are the Young the Children of the World