We celebrated Fête de La Musique on Thursday 16th June at ISL. Parents, staff and students were all involved in celebrating and marking the occasion. It was a fantastic day, filled with a diverse range of music and many happy faces.
The morning began with a group of staff members performing the upbeat traditional sea shanty ‘The Wellerman’, cheered on by parents and students upon arrival at the gate. This was followed by a Teleman violin duet and the famous canon by Pachelbel from the Grade 8 string quartet. Grades 1 and 2 gathered in the music room in the morning to listen to the calming sounds of the Xylophone club performing ‘Hot Cross Buns’ and ‘Up So High’. The EYU were a wonderful audience for the Grade 3/4 recorder orchestra, who presented the soprano recorder and played a “guess this song” game.
During morning break time, primary and secondary students gathered on the pitch to watch the Ecole du Grapillon batucada ensemble perform some very energetic and rhythmic music, also involving the students through participation. The Grade 7 and 8 string orchestra calmed the Grade 3/4 and 5 students in the shady afternoon with Beethoven and traditional Irish and English folk songs, whilst a team of Grade 3 and 4 girls presented an energetic traditional Philippine dance, jumping gracefully in and over bamboo sticks.
The afternoon involved performance exchanges in Grade 6 music with solo piano and guitar orchestra presentations, and to close the celebrations we had some beautiful singing from the EYU students for their parents at pickup time.
A French tradition
Fête de la Musique is an event that is traditionally held on June 21st in France, to celebrate the Summer solstice. Many musical performances take place throughout French cities and villages, in streets, parks and other public places, for people to share and discover a diverse range of music. The tradition began in 1982 when Jack Lang, Minister of Culture organised the first festival.
See below for some of the day’s highlights.
International School 
