Brookman Scholar updates on Musical Life at Wadham

As Trinity Term 2025 drew to a close, so did Ryan Bloxsom's first year as the Brookman Music Scholar.

Together with Director of Music, Hannah Zaki, Ryan thought it was the perfect moment to look back on the 2024/25 academic year—a year filled with performances, collaborations, and behind-the-scenes magic. Below, Ryan shares what's been going on with musical life at Wadham.

Michaelmas Term saw the return of the Wadham College Music Exchange in the Royal Society Room, with Andrew Farmery kindly supporting the event with his Hi-Fi system, and featured music shared by Eric Clarke, Karl Kugle, as well as soundtracks prepared by both undergraduate and graduate students.

This was followed by the inaugural Festive ‘Come & Sing’ in early December, which invited members from across the college to come to Wadham Chapel and sing festive Christmas carols and songs, with Mulled wine, and Mince Pies. There was a great turnout, with many of the attendees not being members of Wadham Chapel choir – excellent to see such great participation from so many members across the college, regardless of previous musical experience.

After the success of the Festive ‘Come & Sing’ in Michaelmas Term, for Hilary Term I decided to organise an event which might attract members of the SCR and Staff, in addition to the student body at Wadham. Recalling the success of a previous demonstration of the Wadham Organ by the former College Director of Music, Katie Pardee, I decided organising a similar event would be a great way to encourage attendance from members across the college.

The demonstration of Wadham’s ‘Father Willis’ Organ began with a brief history of the instrument, followed by an overview of its different components. This was facilitated by members of the IT team, who kindly provided cameras and a large screen, allowing the audience members to observe a livestream from cameras recording at the console and pedalboard.

After a brief history and introduction to the organ at Wadham, I played through excerpts from 9 organ works in chronological order, dating from the late 1690s in France, all the way through to the early 21st century with music composed in the United States, with each work chosen to demonstrate a new technique or style of playing, highlighting the diversity of styles which an instrument such as Wadham’s chapel Organ can play.

Additionally, audience members were provided with handouts detailing the different registrations used for each piece, and highlighted key examples of new techniques which were exemplified by each of the chosen pieces.

Trinity Term saw the launch of the new ‘Brookman Choral Composition Competition’ (BCCC), which invited students across the University, no matter their background or degree subject, to compose music for the Pentecost Service in 7th Week of Trinity Term, which would be sung by Wadham College Chapel Choir. There were 4 categories which students could enter, including Anthem, Psalm, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis, with the winning entry from each category being selected to be performed by Wadham Choir in the Pentecost Service.

This not only allowed student composers from across the University to have their compositions performed by a professionally-directed choir, but allowed them opportunity to work with the choir during the rehearsal preceding the service, in order to shape their compositions into performances they had envisioned during composing.

Additionally, this allowed student composers to showcase their compositional skills, and attract the attention of Professional composers. This project was kindly supported by Aaron King, as a professional composer with experience orchestrating blockbuster films including Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, as well as composing his own original choral music, which has been performed by prestigious choirs including The Bach Choir and the Luceat Choir.

Aaron was a key member of the judging panel which were responsible for choosing the winning entries. After much deliberation, the winning entries were selected, with the winning composers invited to attend the preceding rehearsal and shape the performance of their compositions, before being performed in Wadham Chapel by the College Choir.

Trinity term saw further music-making, including playing the organ for the Choir Gaudy in June. This annual event invites all past members of Wadham Chapel Choir to attend an Evensong-style event in the College Chapel, featuring ‘Wadham Choir Classics’ including the canticles Stanford in B-flat, and Balfour-Gardiner’s Evening Hymn, featuring Katie Pardee, former Director of Music, as guest conductor.

​This was soon followed by Wadham Chapel Choir’s summer tour to Belfast, Northern Ireland, in early July, which saw performances in iconic venues including St. Peter’s Cathedral. I was fortunate enough to accompany the choir on the organ, and play some solo items in the concerts, which allowed me to experience some exceptional instruments in spectacular venues. The choir tour was a fantastic way to round off the year.

Many thanks to Wadham College for supporting me with the Brookman Music Scholarship throughout the 2024/25 academic year – it has been a great opportunity to support music-making within Wadham College. Thanks also to Hannah Zaki, Director of Music, for all her assistance this year facilitating events organised by myself in the role of Brookman Music Scholar, and for her continued support with Wadham College Chapel Choir.

- Ryan Bloxsom