Banging the drum for music
Claremont High School’s musicians share their skills and talent
On Wednesday 8th July 2026, Claremont enjoyed the Summer Festival – a celebration of musical excellence, marking the culmination of a year of student practice and creativity with an event that inspired and engaged the whole school community. The concert took place in the main hall and featured both solo and group performers, including Claremont’s own ensembles and those from Brent Music Services, plus a couple of surprise appearances by staff musicians!
Adding a definite festival spirit to the day, Year 7 students, who have been studying Samba Drumming, formed a troop that marched through the playground playing their carnival percussion. In addition to preparing for the finals of the ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition, Year 8 pupils took on the role of concert promoters, creating posters and music videos to advertise the event, demonstrating real teamwork and entrepreneurialism in the process. And the Year 9s, who have been studying the impact of sound therapy, prepared a meditative soundscape using Indonesian Gamelan.
The final hour of the day featured a variety of workshops, including a North Indian Drumming session led by Brent Music Services, a music industry careers talk hosted by Mr Rudd, and an exhibition displaying the Year 9 experimental music projects. The latter included demonstrations of extended techniques, plus compositions using Chrome Music Lab and graphic scores.
Afterwards, Mr Williams, Head of Music, expressed his satisfaction with the outcome and thanked everyone involved.
‘The concerts themselves were a real success and celebrated such a range of talent, everything from big brass bands to bhangra, ukulele and piano duets to chamber strings, J-pop vocal solos sung in Japanese, to ‘FrNMEzzz’, our latest Year 7 band!
‘A big thank you to Mr Grant, Mr Headley, Mr West and Mr Blackburn, who all gave surprise staff performances that blew their audiences away. Well done also to 7.1 and 7.7 who looked fantastic in their bright summer outfits as they paraded their samba drumming around the playground at lunchtime.
‘The students were also lucky enough to enjoy music-industry insight from YouTuber and musician, Eugy, as well as our very own Careers Advisor. Thank you to Mr Rudd for organising this. Others enjoyed the tabla and dhol workshop. A big thank you to North Indian Music specialist Jay, from Brent Music Service, and Mr Headley for ensuring this ran so smoothly.
‘I hosted the Sound Exhibition in the music block, where students watched experimental performances, designed graphic scores to match the music of Steve Reich, and even produced some Fluxus performances of their own in groups.
‘A final thank you to all staff who helped get students to where they needed to be so efficiently and to all the audience members who listened politely and cheered, helping to create a really positive festival atmosphere!’