Last Thursday we were honoured to have four extremely talented alumnae return to The Abbey to share the stories of their musical careers.
It was a phenomenal opportunity for students to hear about what it takes – and what it’s actually like – to go into the music industry.
Our panel included world-renowned flautist Philippa Davies (Class of 1971), violinist Alexandra Wood (Class of 1995) and conductor Frankie Richards (Class of 2019). It was awe-inspiring to be in the company of such talented musicians and hear them share their infectious passion.
As an ARCH event, guests from other schools in the area joined Abbey students, and everyone received a warm welcome from Music Captain Chloe, Upper VI. Chloe introduced our esteemed guests and panel host, Head of Musical Performance, Ms Bilkey.
Over the next hour we had the pleasure of hearing all about how our alumnae found their passion for music, through to what life is like as a professional musician, before dividing into breakout groups so that students could talk in even greater depth with the musician of their choice.
Phillipa shared how she has performed around the world at international festivals, from Delft to Kuhmo. She has performed concertos with the New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the English Chamber Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players.
She said that she was always sure that she was going to be a flute player and that, “It’s all about the passion! The passion and desire to communicate and, also, I just love being on stage.”
Phillipa started playing the flute around the age of eight and her father set out to find her a teacher, boldly approaching the Royal Music Academy as they lived nearby at the time. A student took her on and, “she was amazing with such enthusiasm.” Her next teacher was more focused on technique and Philippa was soon playing with the National Youth Orchestra before earning her place at The Royal College of Music.
She shared how varied her weeks can be from “the day job” teaching at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, to commercial sessions, through to playing Mozart in a flute quartet or performing Cage and Boulez with the London Sinfonietta.
Phillipa was incredibly generous with her time during her visit to school and delivered a flute workshop for some of our Abbey flautists before the careers event. She has given master classes as far afield as China, and the USA, so this was an incredible opportunity for the students to get one-to-one feedback from her right here at The Abbey.
Also on our panel was violinist Alexandra, who graduated with a starred double first from Selwyn College, Cambridge, before going on to the Royal College of Music, has won major musical prizes, performed with world famous orchestras, and is the leader of the Aurora orchestra whose performances are memorised! With such a phenomenal CV it was moving to hear how much her talent was encouraged here at The Abbey and that, “I loved my music lessons. Three of us did A-level music and we had a brilliant time. We had two different teachers, Mrs York and then Miss Thomas, who I think then got married, and we had Miss Martin and Miss Martin is the reason I went to Cambridge.”
Miss Martin went to Selwyn College and arranged for Alexandra to meet her former Director of Music. During this meeting Alexandra realised she wanted to apply. After Cambridge she won a place at the Royal College of Music.
Alexandra became a Junior Fellow. Major prizes followed and she described the College as, “a great bridge between being a student and entering their profession from there.” She is now leader of the Aurora Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia, Philharmonia orchestra.
Ms Bilkey was intrigued to know more about how Alexandra memorises music for the Aurora Orchestra. She explained, “if you’re learning a solo piece I think there’s a certain amount of muscle memory you know you practice over and over again and a lot of it goes in there without even trying. When you’re attacking a symphony I think it’s a different matter – you have to be disciplined. It’s a bit like revision, you’ve got to learn it by the first rehearsal, essentially looking at the music for patterns, finding links and then repetition.”
Frankie shared that she discovered her love of music right here at The Abbey and is now a soprano, choral leader and arts-based practitioner working across Berkshire. She started singing in the Junior School Choir and it was Mrs Adams, Director of Music at the Junior School, who suggested that she auditioned for the Berkshire Youth Choir. She then joined the National Youth Choir and credited The Abbey for giving her the confidence to “not feel an imposter.”
Frankie gained a first-class degree in Education, English Literature, Drama & the Arts at Homerton College, University of Cambridge before achieving a Masters in Higher Education at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. During her time at the University of Cambridge, Frankie was a choral scholar and became the first conducting scholar in her college’s history.
Continuing to pursue her passion for the arts in education, Frankie received her PGCE from University College London in 2024 and has also toured the world in orchestras and choirs. She shared that performance highlights include singing mass at Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice and at the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.
Frankie shared empowering advice to students about confidence when performing – and strategies to allow them to “narrow their focus” on themselves.
The breakout groups were buzzing with questions and curiosity. Delving deeper into each specialism. It was wonderful to witness such accomplished professional musicians sharing their passion and experience with the next generation.
We are always hugely grateful for our wonderful Abbey alumnae coming back to inspire our current students.