Harrow Hengqin runs an active serious of ‘Masterclasses’ with distinguished experts from various fields offer our students talks and lessons. The close connection with London was renewed with a visit from Mr David Woodcock, Director of Music at Harrow School, UK, who has visited Hengqin twice before.
Whole School Assembly The Tradition of the School Song
Mr Woodcock shared with a full auditorium the history and spirit of the Harrow school songs. He explained that Harrow is the only school in the world with this number of songs regularly sung by the school – there are over fifty songs, written from 1872 to 2003 – and two of these songs, so far, are sung at Harrow Hengqin. They are inspired by many parts of school life — cricket, swimming, rowing, schoolwork, singing songs, Winston Churchill and former Harrow students, joining the school shyly, and saying goodbye when graduating from Harrow.
Mr Woodcock played representative school songs , including “Stet Fortuna Domus”, “Five Hundred Faces”, “The John Lyon’s Road” and “The Silver Arrow”, allowing the melodies to tell their stories. Most memorably, he conducted the whole school in singing “Five Hundred Faces”, learning three new verses with soloists singing at the front.
The assembly concluded with “Forty Years On”. Mr Woodcock expressed heartfelt admiration, praising Harrow Hengqin’s singing of our two songs as unmatched among all the Harrow schools – except at his own! A selection of Harrow songs can be heard at Harrow Songs – Harrow School
Organ Masterclass
During the masterclass, Mr Woodcock taught an organ student with some IGCSE Music students watching and learning too. Last academic year, Harrow Hengqin installed a top-of- the-range digital organ, featuring three manuals, pedals, and over 50 stops, located in our school ground-floor atrium — a large space with an attractive acoustics.
Schools in China equipped with an organ are few and far between. We take great pride in offering this unique facility, which is more than an instrument — it is a window through which students glimpse the very soul of Western classical music.
Lunchtime Concert
The organ, oboe, and strings played together, weaving the solemnity of Bach, the elegance of Marcello, and the vitality of Lidón and Widor through music and orchestra. Performers included not only Mr Woodcock but also Harrow Hengqin’s Head Master Mr Bartlett, music teachers Mr Bulla and Mr Wen, oboist and organ student Brian So, and the school orchestra. The performances were much enjoyed by an audience of 50 parents, students and staff during the lunchtime break.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to Mr David Woodcock for travelling such a long distance to bring us this wonderful Masterclass.
