We were absolutely delighted to give the World Premiere of Stuart Thompson’s work ‘From War to Peace’ at Loughborough Schools Foundation flagship Spring Concert in De Montford Hall recently; a work that was written specifically for us and dedicated to Nicky Bouckley (Director of Music) and the choirs and musicians of the Loughborough Schools Foundation.  It was the centre piece to a glorious concert which beautifully highlighted the music department’s ethos of focussing both on inclusion and excellence.

Until his departure to become Executive Music Lead for the Warwick Foundation recently, Stuart Thompson was Senior Deputy Head at Loughborough High School, and an active member of the Foundation Music Department.  Twelve months ago he stood backstage at De Montfort Hall with Nicky Bouckley during the 2022 Spring Concert, and talked about the lack of appropriate repertoire for choirs, instrumentalists, and junior voices. Stuart suggested that he might write something, and, inspired by the current conflict in Ukraine, From War to Peace was produced.  Involving the Year 7 cohort in our annual Spring concert is a crucial component of our focus on inclusion and offers the pupils an opportunity that they would likely never otherwise experience.   With this in mind, Stuart has a dedicated part for the Year 7 singers to take on, which includes in the final movement a very familiar tune. And for our most senior musicians, he has written bespoke solo parts for each of our Year 13 A Level music students, Megan, Josh and Shai, giving them an opportunity to shine in their final concert with us at De Montfort Hall.

The remainder of the programme also sought to highlight our focus on excellence.  The Symphony Orchestra played Finlandia by Jean Sibelius and The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams with Yla Lloyd as soloist (violin) and the Symphonic Wind Band played Memor Vita by Brant Carrick, Solo de Concours by Andre Messager arr Nowak with Anya King as soloist (clarinet) and Gaelforce by Peter Graham.  Finally, the String Ensemble played two of the movements from Suite for Strings by John Rutter.