Sevenoaks School are the proud winners of the 2023 Pro Corda Founder’s Trophy and the U16 chamber music competition.
Well done to the winning violin quartet: Eve Ward, Orphee Patricot, Eva Li and Luna Bolton, and to all other Sevenoaks musicians who took part. We had four groups in the final, which took place in Brighton at the weekend.
The U16 winners played Quartet for 4 violins by Grażnya Bacewicz (1909-1969), playing wonderfully well, and catching the imagination of the adjudicator.
The Founder’s Trophy is the top prize for schools. The CEO of Pro Corda, in his commendation speech, mentioned Sevenoaks School’s participation in the qualifying round, calling it ‘A festival within a festival’, and noting the breadth of achievement of all of our groups.
In the past 12 years, Sevenoaks School has reached the Pro Corda finals every year that the competition has taken place. We received the Pro Corda trophy in 2011, the Schools’ Trophy in 2016 and the Founder’s Trophy (for the Director of Music) in 2013 and 2023. We were the Under 19 winners in 2018 and 2022 and Under 16 winners in 2022 and 2023.
The Music department is known for its excellence in chamber music, with over 30 chamber groups and choirs, a thriving chamber music programme and a regular concert series dedicated exclusively to its performance.
