During the holidays, Director of Music Hannah Ashe and her team of staff took the Harrodian Jazz Band on tour to Kraków in Poland.
The band, consisting of 12 boys and girls from our 13s to Lower Sixth plus singers Lucy, Lauren and Ginevra, have been busy rehearsing since the beginning of the academic year playing at a number of School concerts but other gigs too, including a slot at the Barnes Music Festival in March.
They performed a set of classic jazz standards and some funk soul covers at two different locations in Poland's second largest city. The first took place at the Piwnica Pod Baranami Jazz Club, a cellar bar in the centre of the city (below) and the second at a High School (V Liceum Ogólnoksztalace).
A buzzing atmosphere at the jazz club made this the preferred gig for our band, but they did enjoy being asked lots of questions by enthusiastic 14 to 18 years olds at the local high school concert too.
In addition to time performing, the group also indulged in some sightseeing. They visited Wawel Hill, Jagiellonian University, Cathedral and Royal Castle, and museums in the Jewish Quarter including Schindler's Factory, as well as the salt mines of Wieliczka. One of the highlights of the trip was a walk and funicular ride into the Tatra Mountains (below).
Although some of the Upper Sixth members of the group were unable to go on the trip (due to A Level revision) and will be leaving the School in the summer, Mrs Ashe knows that there are younger members who will be with the jazz band for quite a few years to come.
'The jazz band is not a group that we put together purely for the purpose of a trip, they play together all year round,' she explains. 'As a result the tour experience is invaluable for them, it helps them to bond as a group and develop their performance skills.'
The tour experience is invaluable to our Jazz Band, it helps them bond as a group and develop their performance skills.
Hannah Ashe, Director of Music