St Mary's had the pleasure of welcoming around 50 flautists from over 15 local schools to the Music Department on 
Sunday for a day of ensemble work and music making.
With players of all abilities involved and students from the ages of 7 to over 17, it might have been a daunting task to organise a workshop of this size and scale, but with the superb directing skills of Mr Tim Fosker from Chippenham and Mrs Jen Bamford from Swindon alongside St Mary's flute teacher Mrs Debbie Matthews all flowed remarkably smoothly.
Students were introduced to the London professional Miss Abigail Burrows, who led the day's massed ensemble in a performance of ‘March of the Gladiators’ – in an arrangement commissioned by Miss Burrows that received its second performance in Chapel later in the day.
Abigail introduced the group to her 'Scale Game' – an interesting and novel way of making these technical studies more interesting – and also to playing the flute the wrong way round before the students broke into groups appropriate to their age and ability.
After a day of intense rehearsals, parents and friends were welcomed (with cake!) and taken to chapel to hear the results of the day's labour. A great day of fun, friendship and flutes!