Following several qualifying rounds, we are delighted to announce that our Tuveno Quartet reached the Final of the Pro Corda National Chamber Music Competition and finished the competition as one of the top 5 chamber ensembles in the country in the U14 age category. Elliot, Uly, Daniel and Yves performed Mozart String Quartet No. 6 in their final performance.
In February, six of our groups qualified to the semi-finals of the Pro Corda Chamber Music Festival for Schools. Central Foundation, the only state-funded non-selective school in the semi-final qualifying round, was competing against 20 other schools which include Dulwich College, Radley College, Brighton College, Warwick School, Queen Elizabeth’s School, Westminster School and Godolphin School.
The 6 groups that qualified were:
- Tuveno Quartet
- Short Quartet
- Andjar Quartet
- Y7 Piano Quartet
- CFBS Guitar Ensemble
- CFBS Jazz Ensemble
The groups performed the works by Mozart, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Khachaturian, and Joe Zawinul.
Pro Corda Festival describes itself as:
“the only national festival to exclusively promote and celebrate chamber music within schools. It is available to all instrumental ensembles between three and nine players. The festival is a vibrant annual celebration of chamber music education in the UK. It is held in January, February and March each year and tours schools around the country through qualifying and regional semifinal rounds, culminating in a finals day at a prodigious performance venue. Each group receives individual coaching with a skilled adjudicator during every round, so the further they progress through the competition the more coaching and experience they receive. The Final usually has a special guest adjudicator and is a celebratory day of chamber music which allows the students the opportunity to play for, and meet, their peers in other schools from around the country.”
The festival is organised into different age categories: under 12s, under 14s, under 16s and under 19s.
As winners of 2023, Central Foundation hosted the Pro Corda Festival Final in 2024 in our Creative Arts Centre.
This year, the festival final was held at the Woldingham School in Woldingham.