Taylorian

TAYLORIAN 2024

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staged to date and was a new high for MTS Drama. It was a dazzling, dynamic evening. Luca McCormick, Ben Ward, and Aarin Kundapur-Pereira led the play from the hedonism of the first act, through to Enron’s decline and fall. The ensemble cast was excellent, playing traders, analysts, velociraptors and even Arnold Schwarzenegger. The production also took technical theatre at MTS to a new level, with a visual and audio soundtrack not seen before in the Studio Theatre. The Junior Play was Our Day Out . Willy Russell’s play is a nostalgic journey from an impoverished Liverpool school to the Welsh Hills. A large cast of boys in the Lower School honed their scouse accents, producing a memorable performance, both funny and moving. This year saw the fifth successive year of MTS boys winning places with the prestigious National Youth Theatre with Chaitya Jain (Divisions) and Shahraiz Siyyid (L6th) both offered places in courses this summer. The musical year began with the annual concert given by Music Scholars. Kaihan Tucker made his debut with a stunning performance. Kaihan later won Merchant Taylors’ Young Musician of the Year 2024, with a wonderfully lyrical performance of Brahms’s Intermezzo in A. The Senior Music Competition was won by Ivan Nabarro, the first person to win the Senior Music Competition more than once. We are a centre of excellence for organists, accredited by the Royal College of Organists. Other individual successes include Jack Barratt’s acceptance into the National Youth Guitar Ensemble. The Concert Band participated in the National Concert Band Festival for the first time this year. This Festival recognises the best of Concert and Wind bands from across the country, including adult bands. For Merchant Taylors’ to be awarded a Silver Award at the first attempt is outstanding.

support in coaching the U12 and U13s in the Spring Term, with Luka Hinton impressing all. Rugby Week was a triumph. In hockey, the 1st XI made the quarterfinals of the Independent School Plate Cup. The U14As made the East semifinal of the tier 1 National Cup. The Seniors had a 7th place finish in the international tournament in South Africa. Indoor hockey has also been a success. The 1st team won the County Cup and narrowly missed out on qualification to the National Finals. The U16s got the silver medal in the County Cup. Every student in years 7 and 8 took part in two hockey fixtures vs Reed’s. In total 27 teams represented the school at hockey with over 350 students representing the school in one fixture or more. In cricket, this Easter we launched the largest ever cricket tour to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. We whitewashed Berkhamsted and St Paul’s in successive fixtures and are running at well over an 80%-win rate. The U14s won the Middlesex final against Harrow; the U15s narrowly lost their County Final; the U18s have progressed to the semifinals of the National competition. Finally, we celebrated the first professional cricket contract for over a decade. Aaryan Sawant has joined Middlesex, having already scored a century for their 2nd team as a schoolboy. In squash, the U18 team successfully made it through the qualifying rounds to reach the semifinals of the Squash England Cup Competition. In football, we had a year long unbeaten stretch, and three of our boys are Middlesex FA U18 County Cup champions: Rohan Dhawan, Arran Dhillon and Mateo Frankic-Ruppen, who was man of the match. A good school will nurture all the pupils’ talents. We have already heard that Mulcaster put drama at the centre of the curriculum. He wrote, ‘Natural capacities once being observed, must be followed with diligence, increased by good method and encouraged by sympathy.’ We still observe natural talents, we still seek to develop and improve them and still offer encouragement in Drama, Music and Art. This year, the Senior Play was Enron. This satire of 80s financial excess was the most ambitious play we have

The concert at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall brought together around 80 musicians from MTS, the Prep School, and St John’s. It was a triumph, as was the Joint Concert at MTS, which involved around 200 children from Merchant Taylors’, St Helen’s, St John’s, abas’ Day