St Edward's Chronicle October 2016

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FOCUS ON MUSIC

ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

George Fenton

George Fenton OSE, one of the UK’s most successful composers, is behind countless award-winning scores for theatre, film and TV including Bergerac , The Jewel in the Crown , the Newsnight theme, Groundhog Day , A Handful of Dust and the BBC’s Earth Trilogy: The Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet . A concert series based on the Trilogy is currently enjoying huge international success, playing most recently in Norway, Germany and China. Recent theatre and film projects include the soundtrack for Wild Oats , directed by Andy Tennant starring Demi Moore, Shirley MacLaine and Jessica Lange; The Lady in the Van , directed by Nick Hytner, written by Alan Bennett, and starring Dame Maggie Smith; and the musical, Mrs Henderson Present s, which ran at the Noel Coward Theatre in London earlier this year.

George Fenton in his studio, 2015

When did you first become interested in music? Quite early. Although not musicians themselves, both my parents were musical. They both played a bit of piano – my father had played the drums when he was younger. I had a musician aunt and my great grandfather was a conductor. So there was music in the family and in the house. My first instrument was the guitar – I started learning when I was about seven years old. I had no interest at all in formal music at that time, I wasn’t keen on music lessons. It felt as though they would be dreary. So my first experiences were all by ear. I enjoyed playing guitar and the piano, and I then sang in the church choir, which was where I began to read music. In church I was impressed by the mysteries of the organ, and decided I wanted to learn how to play. Probably for the same reasons as l liked the electric guitar – noise – sheer force. It struck me as being the ultimate ‘blast’ in terms of expression and musical power.

Why did you come to St Edward’s? My godfather, whom I never knew because he had died when I was very young, had been to St Edward’s. My mother thought him the world’s nicest person, so to her it seemed like a natural choice. Teddies was mainly known for sport at the time, particularly rowing and rugby. I liked rugby, and my father had rowed, so I embraced that side of school life; I was quite good at sport and I enjoyed it. What are the biggest differences between the School then and now? I would say ambition. School life was much simpler then and so was life beyond school so there was no expectation that you would be involved in everything and there were also far fewer options. As long as you were getting on OK, no one worried. School is far more energetic today – pupils are involved in a huge number of activities and interests; they really make the most of their time at school. It’s as important with extra curricular activities as it is with the