The final week of term is upon us and my oh my, the school has been incredibly busy and brimming with music!

On Wednesday, we had two brilliant carol services with nearly 200 girls across the years singing in various choirs. The combination of Year 7 Choir singing ‘Diamond Bright’, Lower Chamber Choir’s ‘Now is the time of Christemas’, Senior Chamber Choir’s ‘Coventry Carol’, to name a few, certainly warmed all our hearts and readied us for the Christmas holidays. With this in mind, I’ve prepared a playlist of all the best Christmas music there is out there (in my humble opinion of course).

As we all go out and panic shop for last minute presents and scour the supermarkets for a multitude of potatoes, goose fat and chickens, take a moment to reflect back on this year and the many challenges we’ve had to encounter within the world and our own personal lives. Witnessing the girls’ and staff’s determination against all manner of adversity and, even more importantly, the FHS community’s unwavering support for one another, has been beyond inspiring. Despite the threat of Covid hanging over our heads, the music department have certainly not backed down and music at school has returned with full steam ahead.

For next term, you can all start looking forward to the much-anticipated performance of ‘Made in Dagenham’ in a West End theatre, the school’s birthday, and the Spring Concert where a big musical work will be performed by almost every musician in the School!

Until then, I hope you all have a lovely, music-filled Christmas, and we’ll see you in the new year.

Maki Gajic Murata, Composer in Residence