By Neil Hornsby, Head of Contemporary Music

When Bedales closed its doors to students five weeks ago, I set our students the task of producing some online content that would both help to keep them busy and also hopefully bring one or two smiles to the faces of the Bedales community. What has since followed has been one of the most meaningful and creative periods I have ever had the fortune of witnessing in all of my years at Bedales.

From spectacular original songs to fun covers, innovative video collaborations to hilarious outtakes. Students have been constantly learning new skills to turn their creative visions into very real end product. From how to record bands across three continents with limited equipment, using specialist music and editing software to create professional quality video, learning stop motion video techniques, researching how best to stream live concerts (more of which to follow in the coming weeks) and learning new ways to collaborate with each other during this unique period. We’ve been sharing the finished results on our social media channels, but if you’ve missed any, you can access all the videos on the Bedales Vimeo channel here.

Special (alphabetical) mention must go to Jamie Bland, Millie Bolton, Tiger Braun-White, Lula Goldring, August Janklow, Laurence Johari, Safi Kazim, Cannden Lawer-Barnes, Kai MacRae, Joe Mendes, Isabella Montero, Lara Rippinger, Jake Scott, George Vaux and Mabel Watson for their incredibly inspirational hard work during difficult times.

More students are constantly joining projects as term begins and I can’t wait to share more of their amazing work soon. Finally, I would like to thank OB George Veys (2013) for his selfless and extremely generous support of our musicians lockdown projects.

Watch the Bedales Contemporary Music lockdown projects here.