6 July 2025
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Irregular but an extraordinary end of year celebration in Swiss Cottage Sunday 6th July 2025

Text: Agnes Kory
Pictures: Helena Aksentijevic
Caption under pictures: Agnes Kory

Much of this event was irregular.
First, we abandoned the plan for a Saturday - our regular weekly sessions take place on Saturdays, as did our previous end of year workshops - as half of our teenage/adult class could not make it.
Then, owing to forecasts for storm and rain on several weather channels, we had to abandon Hampstead Heath, the regular venue for our last five annual end of year workshops.

However, as a different kind of change from previous years, this end of year event included substantial, sensitive and nuanced (sol-fa) music making. I was and remain overjoyed by the standard which we achieved.

We started with a separate session for BBCM youngsters Francis Fisher and Hanna Faghih (with generous vocal backing by participating adults) on Swiss Cottage green. We sang our usual end of year Hampstead Heath songs, pretending that we were on Hampstead Heath. Our youngsters marched for the Marching Song; they were the little frogs at the pretend ponds for the Frog Song. Then they changed into biting mosquitos on the top notes of the Mosquito Song, and turned into splendid candles for the Candlelight game. Pease Pudding / RamSam never sounded as good as with our small but generous polyphonic choir, while the BBCM song received an extra structural line to the four-part round. Our two brave youngsters had wonderful musical backing, hopefully they will cherish the memory at least for a while.

Picture of a group of people, mostly adults, with two young children in front. One looks serious, one pulls a funny face

Young Hanna takes the photo shoot seriously, younger Francis thinks it is funny


After our pretend Hampstead Heath musical celebration on the newly landscaped Swiss Cottage Green, we had an extensive teenagers/adult session at The Winch (Swiss Cottage) which opened for us but, being a Sunday afternoon, was otherwise not used by anybody else. The building was quiet, nothing disturbed our focus.

A photograph of Agnes Kory talking in a room with a whiteboard

Agnes had the luxury to put forward her thoughts in the very quiet environment


Our small teenage/adult class was much extended by ex-BBCM students, current BBCM parents and a truly distinguished guest, thus we were able to create polyphony up to even nine parts. I am very happy to report that we created music as I envisaged, everybody was fully focused and striving for the best.

This was our splendid choir of eleven:
Teenage/adult class:
Erin Sager Weinstein, Konstanze (Konni) Rietsch, Lauren Sager Weinstein, Patricia Thomas
Current BBCM parents:
Elena Fateeva, Yoko Thomas
Ex-BBCM students:
Emilie Speaight, Juliette Majid, Scipio Zamparo, Sophia Ivanetic
Distinguished guest:
Thomas Guthrie (opera stage director, singer, violinist)

A photograph of two women, wearing BBCM t-shirts, smiling

Our tenor section: Lauren and Emily


A photograph of a young woman reading a music book by Bela Bartok

Soprano Juliette's hair colour changes from year to year but her astonishing musical skills and loyalty to our group remain constant


Although the invitation for his participation came from me, I was surprised that Thomas attended so close in time to this year's International Edinburgh Festival. The opening festival concert on 2nd August was a massive eight-hour show (John Tavener: The Veil of the Temple) directed by Thomas. In spite of this, not only did Thomas attend our event but he came fully prepared with the requested photo copies (of music) and provided rock-solid support with his lovely voice, musicality and full focus.
https://www.eif.co.uk/events/opening-concert-the-veil-of-the-temple

A photograph of three adults, one female and two male, looking at sheet music

Our bass section: Konni, Thomas and Scipio


Filmmaker/photographer Helena Aksentijevic also kindly attended throughout and made 27 pictures, mostly of individuals but also a few group photos.

Our programme for our extended teenage/adult group consisted of:

  1. Ut Queant Laxis
    Old Gregorian hymn which Guido of Arezzo used to establish his relative sol-fa system over a thousand years ago (Kodály based his sol-fa system on Guido's)
  2. Kodály: Bicinia Hungarica 57 (Book One)
    Short but challenging bitonal two-part piece with several time changes
  3. Bartók: Ne Menj El (two-part), Játék (two-part), Resteknek (three-part)
    The Játék (Game) uses the text of the Candlelight Game which we performed with Francis and Hanna earlier in the afternoon
  4. Quadlibet
    Three German folk songs in three-part round each: we created nine-part polyphony
  5. Bach: Chorale (No.72 in some editions) from St Matthew's Passion
    This choral comes immediately after Jesus' Death in the work; a beautiful four-part piece
  6. Beethoven: Ode to Joy
    The Schiller-Beethoven hymn for the brotherhood of mankind is very relevant in our time, even if sung with sol-fa in a four-part arrangement
A photograph of Thomas Guthrie and Agnes Korie smiling, in front of a wall full of graffiti

Agnes could not resist requesting a picture with Thomas


A photograph of a group of adults of varying ages, smiling at the camera.

On conclusion in front of The Winch, from left to right: Juliette, Erin, Thomas, Agnes, Scipio, Konni and Lauren


We had a happy ending to our 2024-25 academic year; may the future bring further knowledge and joy.

Agnes Kory's signature
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