Chiswick School was delighted to welcome a string quartet from the Philharmonia Orchestra, who performed to a packed hall of music students from all year groups. The Philharmonia are one of London's top professional orchestras. They have commissioned over 100 new compositions, and play in over 160 concerts each year.

The quartet opened with Mozart's Divertimento in D major, followed by a wonderful Jamaican piece called 'Mento', which allowed the musicians to show off a kaleidoscope of extended playing techniques. Afterwards they took plenty of questions, speaking about how they got into the music profession, how much they practise, and which people inspired them most to become musicians.

Pupils were amazed to learn that the orchestra often has to perform in concerts with very little rehearsal time. To demonstrate this, they even asked that the music department find some string quartet music for them to perform from a first reading, which they did astonishingly well.

Emma, Melina, and Sarina, in year 10 remarked "It was absolutely phenomenal, breath-taking! I couldn't believe how well they performed, and the fact that they were able to sight- read the music with no rehearsal".