Students Perform Onstage at The Royal Opera House

Teresa Best / 14 May 2019 / Categories: News

Students from The Hurlingham Academy took to the stage at the Royal Opera House today to perform for the world-famous institution’s season launch.                    

A group of Year 7 students from the Fulham school were specially invited to help mark the Royal Opera House’s much-anticipated launch event, where the venue announced its featured productions and operas for the upcoming year. Students performed a selection of songs from Bizet’s best-known opera Carmen!

Putting on an impressive musical display, The Hurlingham Academy students showed no sign of nerves despite the pressure of the occasion. They had spent weeks in school learning and rehearsing the songs to pull off such a challenging operatic set-list, but were delighted that all their hard work paid off with a polished performance. 

The students are now preparing for a second – even larger scale – performance in June. This unique event will feature over 1,500 pupils from 40 schools across the country performing Carmen! at the iconic Copper Box Arena in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This performance is the culmination of a year-long project led by national schools group United Learning to introduce its pupils to opera. 

Working in partnership with the Royal Opera House, the Voices Foundation and the English Pocket Opera Company, the aim of the project is to encourage pupils not only to listen to and understand opera, but to participate in and perform it. This is part of United Learning’s commitment to delivering an Education with Character to all its pupils – an education which provides a breadth of opportunities and experiences to help children become confident, well-rounded and ambitious young adults.

Leon Wilson, Principal at The Hurlingham Academy, said:

Performing on stage at the Royal Opera House has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our students and pulling off such a fantastic performance took nerve, determination and hard work from each of them. This was the perfect example of what we call an ‘Education with Character’ – the chance for students to take on new challenges, gain confidence and hone their skills and talents. 
I know that everyone is now excited to be working towards the national United Learning performance in June, where our students will join their peers in performing at another spectacular London venue. Not only has this been a brilliant introduction to classical music for our younger students, but to perform on this sort of scale is something few schools are able to offer and will be an unforgettable experience for them all.