SE CHRONICLE 684

25 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Jonathan Eden

‘To the pupils in the School: hats off to them, they do remarkable things.’

Charlie Scales and Flossie Butler-Adams in November’s outstanding production of Sweeney Todd

When did you discover your love of music and become passionate about it? I only started learning piano because my best friend at prep school was taking lessons. I had a really good piano teacher in East London who thought it was important to learn proper classical technique and classical pieces, but at the same time to do jazz and pop if you wanted to. He also taught me theory and harmony and how chords relate to each other, which means you can then understand how to compose and arrange your own music. I used to arrange more than compose – I like reimagining music and ran a Close Harmony group at university, which was a lot of fun. What are your musical influences? Is there a particular composer or piece of music that you return to in your life? There are so many; the plan is variety. You can’t beat Bach’s St Matthew Passion – the Bach passions are amazing choral music – but at another time I can listen to a Vaughan Williams symphony or similar, something orchestral, English, romantic. I will listen to the work of the great musical composers, jazz greats like Gershwin or Irving Berlin, as well as jazz pianists from the past such as Michael Petrucciani or Bill Evans. My Spotify list is always evolving. It will be different

that be academic, sport, music, or other arts, and create an individual portfolio for themselves. Aiming for a breadth approach doesn’t, however, mean that you can’t aim for excellence. It’s really good to take a 13-year-old pupil and say to them ‘where can you be in five years’ time?’ When grade exams often take a year or more of hard

every single time I listen to it – it doesn’t know who I am at all and that’s really good!

What makes music at St Edward’s so special? The Teddies experience is all about trying to make music open to all. It is important that pupils can have a go at everything, whether

Kamran Akhavan is applauded at a performance Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light Requiem by St Edward’s Orchestra and St Edward’s Singers in February.