June/July 2011 – The Brundibár Project
The Brundibár Project
June/July 2011
The Brundibár project has been a large-scale collaboration between the academy, Chetham‟s School of Music (the UK’s leading under-18 specialist music school), Victoria College Preparatory School, Springfield School, Grainville School, Jersey College for Girls, Les Quennevais School, Victoria College, and the Jersey War Tunnels.
The planning for this began in earnest from January, pictured here is Chris George (JAM), Jane Silvester (VCP), Iain George (Springfield), and Paul Simmonds (Jersey War Tunnels) at an on-site meeting in January:
Rehearsals began in the months leading up to the performance week, and pictured here is the combined VCP/Springfield chorus rehearsing, and the combined JAM/Chetham’s orchestra rehearsing with conductor Stephen Threlfall (Director of Music at Chetham’s):
Brundibár is a “children‟s opera”, originally performed in 1943 from within the confines of the Jewish ghetto Terezin. The children imprisoned within would go on to perform the work over fifty times. Most of the participants, including the composer Hans Krása, later lost their lives at Auschwitz. On the surface the work presents a colourful story of children joining together to overcome an adult villain, the wicked organ-grinder “Brundibár‟. But the history surrounding the work gives an insight into the social and political events of the Second World War and Holocaust. Because of the messages lying behind this work a whole range of educational outreach events took place all over the island during the course of the project.
Dr Martin Stern, himself a survivor of Terezin, visited many schools to talk about his experiences, and also introduced each performance of Brundibar. There were three performances in total, the first was delivered to one hundred primary school children from various schools, and the following two public performances were both sold out. DVDs of the performance can be obtained from Digital Diggle, and the opening performance was also filmed by Channel Television.
On behalf of all the organising bodies involved in this rich and varied collaboration, we would like to extend our congratulations to all the children involved, and our sincere thanks to the Jersey War Tunnels for all their assistance, the Jersey Arts Trust for their continued support of Jersey Academy of Music projects, Freddie Cohen for the sponsorship of Dr Martin Stern’s visit, the JADC for help with costumes, and finally to the parents of all the performers for their hard work too!
(all photographs courtesy of the Jersey Evening Post)
– Cast List –
Lead Roles
Aninku – Gemma Daubeney
Pepicek – Joseph Barette
Brundibar – Max Treharne
Sparrow – Katie Bastiman
Cat – Laura Clarke
Dog – Rachel Hayden
Policeman – Ruben Maric
Milkman – Charles Blackwell
Baker – Jonathan Kene
Ice-cream Seller – Elisha Hart
Les Quennevais Drama Group
Vicky Doleman
Joanna Le Brocq
Sophie Martin
Rebecca Le Gros
Christina Goncalves
Choir Members from VCP
Billy Baker
Leo Waddington
Jasper Clarke
Tom Pollard
William Wycherley
Jake Clarke
Max Denby
Daniel Hayden
Myles Holmes
Alexander Merren
Carter Weekes
Robert Clark
Viraj Kotedia
Henry Dowling
Morgan Gregory
Max Harrington
Oscar Fitzpatrick-Nash
Angus Hay
Thorston Lane
Ben Le Chevalier
Adam Baluchi
Matthew Daubeney
Oliver De Sousa
Jonathan Heward
Charles Blackwell
Thomas De La Cour
Oscar Barette
Calvin De Louche
Finn Laing
Choir Members from Springfield
Raquel Pinheiro Correia
Chloe Crouch
Bethany Moisan
Courtney Anders
Jonathan Kene
Jessica Jaye Stoneman
Elisha Hart
Deanna De Lemos Cooper
Paige Nichols
Ryan Eccles
Lea Camacho
William Emerson
Wiki Chylinska
Marianna Alves
Shannon O’Callaghan
Nicole Nunes
Suzanne Le Vesconte
Sofia De Freitas
Kaitlin Rabet
Jessica Martins
Cristiana Pereira
Amber Baudains
Jordan Al Fajardo
Holly Noel
Melissa Lewis
Georgia Ferguson
Owen Hiney
Anthony Richardson
Orchestra
Conductor – Stephen Threlfall
Flute – Victoria Rees
Clarinet – Daniel Scriven
Trumpet – Andrew Thompson
Guitar – Iain George
Accordion – James Poingdestre
Percussion – Will Matthews and Jack Chown
Violins:
Emily Earl
Roman Lytwyniw
Nadia Vasileva
Elliot Samphier
Philip Beaugie
Antoinette Tuckwell
Isobel Osborne
Cellos:
Finlay Hare
Aiden Haslam
Double Bass – Ben Taylor-Davies
Piano – Grace Garnier
Vocal Support – Rhiain Taylor and Katie Orchard