Bedford School pupil Alexander Olleson, who won the BBC Young Chorister of the Year competition at the weekend has recorded an exclusive solo with the Bedford School Chapel Choir.
Alexander appeared on BBC One on Sunday and impressed the judges once again having battled his way to the final a week before. The talented 14-year-old from Leighton Buzzard, who joined Bedford School in September on a music scholarship, has been singing for years, joining All Saint’s church choir, Leighton Buzzard, at the age of seven.
It is with Bedford School Chapel Choir that Alexander sings the solo first verse in Harold Darke’s setting of In the Bleak Midwinter in a carefully edited recording to ensure that choristers kept socially-distanced throughout. The carol also features a solo from Upper Sixth Former Hugh Halsey, and the Chapel Choir is accompanied on the organ by Lower Sixth Former James Watson.
Listen here to: In the Bleak Midwinter: https://youtu.be/6-QmAUBxDLo
Alexander said that although he loves singing solos, it is the team spirit and camaraderie of singing together in the choir that he really enjoys.
“Singing as a soloist is something I have done for years as a chorister but when you are in a choir you feel as if you are singing as one body,” he said.
“You also have that team spirit; if one of you has a howler and hits a wrong note, the rest of the team can correct it. I think that’s what really makes the music so special, because you are all acting as one.”
Jonathan Sanders, Bedford School’s Director of Music, who leads the Chapel Choir where Alexander sings as one of 35 boys from eight different year groups, said, “I was delighted to hear that Alexander had won the competition.
Alexander is at a transitional moment in his education, having enjoyed the amazing opportunity of having been a cathedral chorister, and is now embarking on his senior schooling.
Winning the competition will give him some amazing opportunities to work with professional musicians, both singers and instrumentalists, which will provide him good insights into the world of professional music-making, even in these unprecedented COVID times.”
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