Welsh Soprano Gloria Ellis works with singers

Report by Head of Music Jo- Anne Trevenna

We have been very privileged to have Welsh soprano Gloria Ellis, working with our most able singers over the last two weeks. The culmination of her work here was an intimate recital in which 20 students performed a variety of repertoire. The recital took place on Thursday 21st January, watched by parents, friends and relatives in the Music rooms.
Gloria has been working with students one-on-one and in groups on technique and breathing, and performance technique.

The afternoon ended with a quartet of year 12 students singing ‘Ffydd Gobaith Cariad’ in Welsh. Gloria has worked with them on their pronunciation and she described the performance as; moving and amazingly linguistically impressive, in what is an extremely complex and challenging language to master.
Gloria has thoroughly enjoyed her time at Island School, and said of our students; their work ethic and application to learning the complex technique of singing is unparalleled. What they have achieved in such a short space of time is truly remarkable!