Imperial College String Ensemble

We all know that feeling. The moment of closure as something wonderful comes to an end. You look back and realise that it will stay with you for many years to come, as a glowing memory in your life. This year’s weekend away has been one of those moments for us!

On the Friday evening a group of tired Imperial students gathered around a blue minibus, chatting amiably, with a quiet buzz of excitement permeating the air.

Waking up bright and early on Saturday at 8.30, breakfast was an assortment of brioche, croissants, muesli, fruit yoghurt and the various permutations there-of. Whilst every one broke their fast Sophie began, what would become, her famous ‘Sing Along with Sophie’ routine, consisting of a series of repetitive, catchy tunes that were designed to irritate you for weeks to come.

Once we were all suitably warmed up we dived straight into Sea Sketches by Grace Williams. Honestly, this is an incredible piece and unmissable for any fans of program music out there. It was composed by a woman (sadly a rarity among famous composers) from Wales in 1944 for string orchestra.

Every club or society has that weird game they play like ‘the pairs game’ or the ‘peg’ game. Well, ICSE kicked off the incomparable ‘which vegetable am I’ game. Players would pose as they depicted a vegetable using only their body, and particularly, their facial expression. Results were mixed but Samuel’s celery was especially admirable!

As the full light of Sunday bloomed, ICSE members struggled out of sleeping bags and into breakfast. This time a more subdued affair, albeit with the singing entirely intact.

Arriving at the church we were pleased to find it both heated AND with toilets, which was a marked improvement on the year before. The concert as a whole was very well played with solid performances in both the Sea Sketches and the Brandenburg, so well in fact that we did an encore of Sailing song from the Sea Sketches; the last of the three we performed.

Pulling into the union around 6-7pm we unloaded, unpacked, parked the bus and decided it was time to go home. Right proper job all round. The weekend was over, and as we contemplated the week ahead, we could feel that this had been a time we would remember for years to come and look back on with great fondness and affection. Thank you ICSE for making this possible.

If you are interested in coming and listening to ICSE, all Felix readers are very welcome to come to our Spring concert on Friday the 18th of March at 19:30 in Holy Trinity Church, South Kensington. We hope to see you there!