Last weekend, we enjoyed our first NCO weekend of 2025, and it was a fantastic experience. I got to work alongside some other harpists that I have now known for a few years and the four of us loved working with Marged Hall, our harp tutor for the weekend, who really enjoyed seeing and hearing my progress since last year, especially since I've started playing my new pedal harp as well as my lever harp.

Our venue for the weekend, The Ruddock Performing Arts Centre at King Edward's School in Birmingham, was wonderful to play in. It was a smaller venue than we played in last year but had amazing acoustics, so much so that my fellow lead harpist and I had to wear ear plugs to allow us to hear our own instruments whilst sitting so close to the brass and percussion sections!  

My favourite piece was the one that I introduced to the audience; Deep River composed by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Being a Young Presenter was a wonderful experience, and I was considerably more nervous standing up and speaking to the audience than playing for them in the concert! We also played a piece called Bhumi, which was composed especially for the NCO, and we were very pleased to meet the composers, Vishak Ramaprasad and Edward Lun. Mars from the Holst Planet Suite brought the challenge of playing in 5/4 time and the concert was brought to an end with Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid.

Lots of music and memories made! Roll on our school Spring Term concert, exams and the next NCO weekend in June.

Chloe, Year 6