Millfield Musicians off to top music university

Three Millfield music scholars have received confirmed offers to study Music at the University of Manchester, one of the top UK universities for music. Music scholars Rowan Wilson from North Wootton, Harvey Morland from Ashcott and Cameron Murray from London have all received offers to study Music at University of Manchester in September 2020. The degree course, recently named by the Sunday Times as the best university music course in the country in its 2020 Good University Guide, offers an unrivalled combination of academic excellence and conservatoire-standard performance.

Eighteen-year-old Cameron Murray is a multi-instrumentalist specialising in guitar (classical), piano and viola. Cameron is a very strong academic musician, enjoying strengths in score analysis, harmony and counterpoint, and composition. The latter is an area that Cameron is particularly passionate about with Cameron recently writing a motet for 8-part choir and is in the final stages of a specially-commissioned work for Millfield Dance. In addition to performing a huge amount of solo concerts, Cameron has been a key member of many major school ensembles, including principal viola roles in both orchestra and string orchestra, whilst also enjoying first bass roles in several choirs including the school's award-winning chamber choir, Camerata.

Eighteen-year-old Rowan Wilson has been one of the department's strongest male vocalists in recent history. Enjoying a vocal range that could see him fit comfortably from second bass right through to first tenor, Rowan has led, inspiringly, the many different vocal facets of the department, demonstrating strengths across classical, jazz, musical theatre and popular styles, with Rowan even enjoying several successful performances as a rapper. He was lead in the recent Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street production, captivating four sell-out audiences with his portrayal of the deeply-troubled character. Rowan boasts an incredible aptitude for academic music, completing recently an impressive research project on Miles Davis’ ‘Kind of Blue’. An avid jazzer, Rowan can often be found arranging and performing jazz standards with his own student formed sextet.

Eighteen-year-old Harvey Morland boasts incredible strengths as an academic musician, in addition to being adept practically as a tenor, pianist and violinist. Harvey's greatest passion is deepening his understanding and awareness of an impressive range of musicological issues. He recently completed a first-class research project into the development of Beethoven’s piano writing, as seen in his piano sonatas. He has a contagious thirst for acquiring new musical knowledge, ever curious about all aspects of musicology. Harvey is also a hugely passionate composer and jazz musician, spending countless hours developing his improvisation skills that have impacted incredibly positively on his flair and confidence as a composer. As a practical musician, Harvey is one of the school's leading vocalists, performing in all vocal ensembles in addition to brilliant success as a soloist, winning the school's vocal category in the Millfield Musician of the Year.

Students at Millfield have full use of the purpose-built Music School, which includes the Johnson Hall, a 350-seat Concert Hall with superb acoustics and a stage large enough to host a full orchestra and choir, and a Recital Foyer. The department also has 25 practice rooms, four fully-equipped Mac suites, numerous rehearsal spaces, a specialist percussion room and professional standard recording studios. In recent years, Millfield music scholars have gone on to study at some of the finest conservatoires in the world including Curtis Institute, Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

Millfield’s Director of Music, Matthew Cook, says, "We are exceptionally proud of Cameron, Harvey, and Rowan. To have such a talented and committed group of students choose to dedicate the next chapter of their education to furthering their musical development is inspiring to staff and students alike, continuing our very proud tradition of Millfield leavers going to study Music at either university or conservatoire.  All three have been accepted at Manchester University which is a brilliant achievement - it is such a highly prestigious establishment, one that has a truly excellent music department. They each have their own talents and will, with continued dedication, go on to achieve success in whichever field they choose to, be it as composers, performers, educators, musicologists - one thing they do share though, and one thing we will miss the most, is their innate passion and endless thirst for involvement in so much of our Music School."