Viewing archives for Arts

Scores of the School’s young musicians battle it out today in a competitive Pianoathon Challenge being held to raise money to buy pianos for the new Music School.

Each of the School’s Houses has been challenged to provide an hour of sound, with small teams of musicians and soloists playing for up to three minutes each: the result should be six hours of non-stop music in the Main School Hall.

The event has been arranged as one of the special events taking place to celebrate tomorrow’s Founder’s Day.

Director of Music Ruth Partington said: “This is part of our last big push to ensure that our brilliant new Music School is equipped to the highest standards when it opens in the autumn. Thanks to the generosity of the School’s Foundation Trustees, we have already secured the purchase of a superb grand piano for our new recital hall, but that still leaves seven new practice rooms all needing a high-quality piano – and that is what we are raising money for today.

“If you haven’t already donated, please give now, sponsoring your House, or your son’s House, via our dedicated eQE Pianoathon page. This is a real first for QE and promises to be a thrilling event: let the playing commence!”

Parents and friends can watch the musical action unfold live in a special YouTube broadcast (above), which can also be viewed on the eQE page and via the Music department’s YouTube page.

Each House has entered small teams comprising up to five musicians – including at least one pianist – to play music of their choice. There is a visiting guest adjudicator, Mr Huw Jones, Director of Music at The John Lyon School in Harrow, who will be helping to pick the winners in the various categories, which cover team and solo performances (both for each year group and overall), also including a prize for the Best House Overall. Houses that raise large amounts of money will also have the opportunity to have one of the new pianos named after them.

Today’s musical menu chosen by the boys includes a rich range of genres and styles, and features instruments ranging from violins to electric guitars, and from oboes to tablas. Here is a small selection of the repertoire to be heard, House by House:

• Broughton: Canon in D, Pachelbel; Étude op 10 no. 12 ‘Revolutionary’, Chopin; Peppa Pig theme
• Harrisons’: Es war einmal, Grieg; Downton Abbey theme, John Lunn; Samba Nights, Proudler
• Leicester: Attack on Titan Opening Theme 1, Sawato; Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, arr. Sakamoto; I See Fire, Ed Sheeran
• Pearce: Sonatina in C major, Kuhlau; Opening Night Jazz, Martha Mier; Sonata No. 3, Prokofiev
• Stapylton: Romanze Op. 28, Schumann; Sonatina Movement 1, Dušek; Toccata in G minor
• Underne: Pink Lady, Pam Wedgwood; Prelude in C-sharp minor, Rachmaninoff; Your Song, Elton John.

The £3.5m-plus Music School, which is currently in the final stages of construction, received the go-ahead in 2019 after the Department for Education accepted the School’s £2.2m bid, which consisted of a £1.2m grant and £1m loan.

Like all major improvements at the School over the past two decades, the project is relying on the generous financial support of the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s and other benefactors. Pride of place in the building will go to the Yamaha CF6 grand piano in the recital hall, which was chosen by the Music Department after a week-long audition process. Valued at just under £75,000, it is being paid for by the School’s Foundation Trustees.

For those without an eQE account, donations can be made to each House’s total by clicking on the relevant name: Broughton; Harrisons’; Leicester; Pearce; Stapylton; and Underne.

The Music department have adapted to Covid-19 conditions with the first-ever concert from the School to be live-streamed on YouTube.

The Senior Chamber Concert featured a restricted audience in the Main School Hall, but was also filmed and broadcast online so that the wider QE community could see it in real time.

Director of Music Ruth Partington said: “It is exciting to be live streaming to YouTube. As ever, the boys in the concert have been practising hard and they should all be congratulated on achieving such a high standard of performance.”

The programme for the first major concert of the academic year exclusively featured soloists, with 13 performances during the course of the early-evening event.

Playing instruments ranging from the electric guitar to the flute, they were drawn from Year 11 and the Sixth Form. The repertoire was similarly diverse, from Beethoven (Year 12 pianist Alex Woodcock performed the Sonata in G Op.14 Allegro) to contemporary American guitarist Steve Vai’s Die to Live (performed on the electric guitar by Kirtinandan Koramutla, of Year 11).

The concert, which ran for 1hr 17mins, opened with another electric guitar piece – Soma, by Simon Troup – played by Year 11’s Atul Kanodia.

The sole vocalist of the night was Shivas Patel, of Year 12, who performed songs by the 19^th German composer Robert Schumann (Ich Grolle Nicht from Dichterliebe) and his protégé and friend, Johannes Brahms (Ständchen).

Year 12 alto saxophonist Conor Parker-Delves brought the evening to a close with his performance of Pequeña Czarda by Pedro Iturralde, a Spanish saxophonist and composer celebrating his 91st birthday this year, who composed the virtuoso piece in 1949.

Mr Tadashi Imai, one of QE’s visiting music teachers, accompanied the soloists on the piano.

The technical operations, including the live-streaming of the concert on the QE Barnet Music YouTube channel, were run by Indrajit Datta of Year 10.

The concert is still available for viewing on the Music department’s YouTube channel.

A Year 8 boy has won a national Covid-19 health & safety competition with a colourful design inspired by Lord Kitchener’s iconic World War I recruitment poster.

Anik Singh won the secondary school category of the contest with his watercolour highlighting some key coronavirus safety precautions.

Anik, who is keen on both Art and Technology, was congratulated on his success by Head of Technology Michael Noonan: “This is a tremendous effort from Anik, and it’s brilliant to see him take the influence of historical events in his work. I hope this competition win spurs him on to even greater heights.”

In recognition of his success, competition organisers at e4education, the leading school website provider, had 50 copies of his poster professionally printed. These have now been distributed around the School, complementing QE’s own Back to School Guide and accompanying anti-Covid 19 posters and banners.

In the design, the familiar Kitchener figure looking straight out of the poster is transformed into a masked medic. Under the main title ‘Your country needs YOU to follow the advice and rules’, are references to three specific measures: “Always try and stay 2M apart”, “Wash your hands frequently for 20 seconds with soap” and “If you use public transport, wear a mask”.

Anik said he had aimed to make the poster as colourful as possible, so that, in his words: “You should want to stop and look at it.”

Katie Sixsmith, Marketing & Communications Executive for e4education, explained why the design had so impressed the judges. “We were blown away by the technical skill of this drawing and loved the multi-coloured effect combined with the themed interpretation of a historical poster.”

Architecture student Nabil Haque has enjoyed stellar academic success in his final year at Jesus College, Cambridge, winning a string of prizes and accolades.

Nabil (OE 2010–2017) graduates with the highest-possible class of degree – Double First with Distinction – and an overall score of 80 out of 100, which is the top mark recorded by the university’s Architecture department in five years.

He thus won the award for the best Architecture student of his year, having also secured several other college prizes for academic performance, including the Sir Leslie Martin Prize for Architecture.

“The grade I received this year makes me eligible for the BASS Fellowship, a fully-funded, expenses-covered two-year scholarship to Yale University, where I wish to pursue my Part II Architecture Master’s. I am currently completing my year in industry at Caruso St John Architects, winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2016.”

He has been nominated by Cambridge for the: Architects’ Journal National Student Awards; Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) President’s Medal Bronze Award for Undergraduate Portfolio, and RIBA President’s Medal Dissertation Award. “The RIBA President’s Medals in particular are the most prestigious architectural awards in the world, and it has been an honour to be nominated by the university for them.”

Yet, says Nabil, his final year at Cambridge “has been by no means an easy one, with strikes for eight weeks during the first term and coronavirus relegating my final term to home-based learning”.

Nabil says QE has remained at the forefront of his mind throughout his time at Cambridge, where, he found, the School’s reputation preceded him: “It is no exaggeration to say that professors, tutors and even my peers always recognise a ‘QE boy’.”

He was involved in many areas of School life, for example, captaining the First XV and winning a place on the Royal Academy of Arts’ attRAct programme in the Sixth Form.

He pays particular tribute to Head of Art Stephen Buckeridge for the instrumental role he played in the formative stages of his education, pointing out that he was one of no fewer than three QE boys in his year on Cambridge’s extremely competitive Architecture degree course (together with Danny Martin and Tochi Onuora). It was, he said, the “freedom, confidence and individuality” that Mr Buckeridge fostered during their Sixth Form years which enabled them to navigate their design projects so successfully. “QE is the most represented school across all three years of Architecture undergraduates at Cambridge,” Nabil says.

He also maintains strong links with other QE alumni in his year at Cambridge, counting Christopher Deane, Viral Gudiwala and Tomas Viera-Short among his close friends.

“My time at Cambridge was by and large a direct extension of my time at QE. I represented the university for rugby (Second XV) and athletics, I held positions on the Jesus College Student Union (including Black and Minority Ethnic Officer), was a student representative for the Jesus College Legacies of Slavery Committee and was, in 2019, responsible for the first-ever art exhibition exclusively for BME exhibitors.

“The confidence to take up such positions, pursue my interests and further myself physically, mentally and academically all stem from the foundations I laid down at QE.”

QE’s Lockdown Art Competition attracted more than 100 entries from pupils of all ages, with Year 7 boy Joshua Wilkinson’s self-portrait taking first prize.

The entries came in a wide range of media, from oil paint to digitally manipulated images, and the boys’ artworks featured a similarly broad choice of subjects, from still lives to dreamscapes.

In addition to the current online exhibition on the School’s eQE platform, QE will be looking at ways of displaying the winning artworks around the School. They will also be reproduced in the pupil-produced magazine, The Arabella.

Head of Art Stephen Buckeridge said: “We were really impressed, both with the scale of the response and with the quality of the entries, which included a great deal of diverse, creative and thoughtful work.”

The competition categories included: animal; portrait/figure; landscape/cityscape/seascape; still life/botanical; abstract/non-representational and scenes of everyday life.

Boys were asked to create two-dimensional artworks in any medium and submit an image electronically. The entries featured pencil, watercolour, oil paint, felt-tip, fine liners, pastel and collage, as well as photography and digitally manipulated images.

Joshua’s self-portrait [pictured top, with the competition poster] was the first he had done using oil paints and was based on a photo taken on a smartphone. It took him seven hours over the course of three weeks. “I tried to capture likeness, while also using rough paint strokes and layering to make the painting look less realistic. For the background, I took inspiration from Vincent van Gogh, using his signature style.”

Art teacher Jeanne Nicodemus praised the “presence and concentration” shown by Joshua in and through his artwork. “I also enjoyed the texture and handling of the painting. I could see his enjoyment of the material, with delicate gradient details to the expressive swirls in the background.”

The runners-up were Kovid Gothi, of Year 8, and Kai Pentecost, of Year 12, whose entries are shown right above and left respectively.

Kovid explained what he had set out to achieve: ““I wanted to capture the bright tones of the leaf and metallic lid against the smooth glass.”

Ms Nicodemus said: “Kovid’s classical still life with its observed detail…enables you to appreciate the changes in light and shadow with his impressive handling of coloured pencil. To me, the white background conveys a purity and lightness with a silent stillness and focused contemplation.”

Kai produced his artwork – oil pastel on a wooden board – as part of his work for the Royal Academy’s attRAct scheme, which is a year-long programme of practical workshops, tutorials, studio visits and exhibition tours. Every year, two QE Year 12 Art students apply for a place, and Kai was successful this year.

Kai explained that the artwork reflects his dreams, which are frequently dystopian in nature and in which, since “the isolation of lockdown”, he has felt “the serenity of being alone but the frustration of wanting to get out”.

“Kai’s imaginative interior, exterior composition to me is full of feeling in a surreal, dream-like, emotive composition,” said Ms Nicodemus.

The category winners (with some comments from Ms Nicodemus) were:

• Portrait/figure – Bhav Rambhiya, of Year 12, for his pencil drawing entitled INSPIRATION
• Land/city/seascape – Anik Singh, of Year 7, for a watercolour, Staring into space: “I can almost feel the rain on my face”
• Still life/botanical – Artem Apostoli, of Year 9, for an untitled black & white photograph
• Natural Form – Kailun Zhou, of Year 8, whose artwork entitled Glamour World was created using colouring pencils, pencil and fine liners: “almost a whole story compacted into a final image”
• Abstract/non-representational – Vignesh Rajiv, of Year 9, for a pencil drawing, Geometric symmetry: “like a kaleidoscope of patterns, textures and three-dimensional shapes”
• Everyday life – Venthan Kumanan, of Year 9, for his pencil drawing entitled Living Life: “an impressive use of manga-style drawing, conveying a momentary sense of helpless frustration, isolation and rage”.

A wealth of creative talent is showcased in this month’s special competition edition of The Arabella – a magazine produced by QE boys featuring the work of the pupils.

Under the theme, Brave New World, the Art and English departments launched Art and poetry competitions which attracted a high level and standard of entry, many of which are celebrated in the special release.

Head of English Robert Hyland said: “As a School community, we are getting used to a ‘new normal’, containing paradoxes of collaborative independence and isolated community, and where we are increasingly working in a ‘brave new world’.

“Boys from all year groups were invited to submit original and creative poems and art works exploring this theme – entries could be witty and humorous, contemplative and reflective, or anything in between, as long as they engaged with the theme.

“We were overwhelmed with the response – and thrilled to see such creativity and artistic flair from our boys. We are proud to see that this extraordinary new chapter is bringing out the best in our boys.”

For the Art competition, Head of Department Stephen Buckeridge first showed the boys some book illustrations as examples.

He ranked their entries on whether the image produced captured the spirit of the Brave New World title and on how it might work as a book jacket design. There were more than 60 entries, covering all the year groups.

“I have chosen eight that I felt illustrated the theme best – reflecting a kind of dystopian vision,” said Mr Buckeridge.

The overall winners​ of the Art competition were Haipei Jiang, of Year 10, whose work is pictured top. Next was Alex Aliev, of Year 12, followed by Kovid Gothi, of Year 8, in third place.

“I felt Haipei’s drawing captured the essence of 1950-60s book jacket design and it reminded me of nostalgic times spent in second-hand bookstores as a teenager,” said Mr Buckeridge.

“Alex’s was a strong, imaginative drawing, suggestive of Amazing Stories magazines from the 1950s.

“And Kovid’s collage captured the spirit of our current times.”

In addition to the three main winners, five boys’ contributions were highly commended:

Anik Singh, Year 7
Manthan Thakkar, Year 8
Anubhav Rathore, Year 10
Abhiraj Singh, Year 10
Pierre Mougin, Year 12

Overall winner Haipei said: “It feels incredible to have won an art competition with so many great entries.​ There is much anxiety worldwide regarding the recent outbreak of COVID-19. However, if we look through another’s eyes, we can see the essence of hope for the future.” ​

Alex, who was placed second, added: “I wanted to combine the past, present and future within one drawing. I chose to use a traditional, well-known, scene of a cowboy [pictured above right] overlooking a typical western setting of a desert, but replace it with a futuristic, almost dystopian, element with tall trees and an unknown distant city of skyscrapers. The large viruses that hang above the cowboy are obvious references to the current situation we live in.”

Kovid meanwhile was excited by the opportunity to participate: “Despite the fact that there are a lot of brave key workers risking their lives to keep our community and economy running, I was most inspired by the front-line NHS staff who, with limited PPE supply, kept on fighting against the coronavirus and were undeterred by the possibility of losing their own lives. This is my tribute to their bravery and dedication to put themselves in harm’s way to save the rest of the world; Brave New World indeed.” His collage is pictured above left.

There was also a high level of interest in the poetry competition. Mr Hyland chose a winner from each year group:

​Year 7 – Keon Robert
Year 8 – Rajanan Shanmugabalan
Year 9 – Akshaj Pawar
Year 10 – Nivain Goonasekera
Year 11 – Ethan Solanki
Year 12 – Tristan Lolay
Year 13 – Matt Salomone

Keon used the word ‘change’ as the basis for his poem. “I wanted my readers to think about what they can do to make an impact on the world. When I found out I was my year group winner I was shocked. I had been able to see some of the other poems through the School’s forums. I’m very proud of my achievement.”

The sensation of feeling trapped was the starting point for Rajanan’s entry, especially having to stay indoors along with finding the courage to get through. “I hope the people that read the poem take away the fact that they aren’t alone, although they may feel like it. We are feeling alone together! To conclude, my reaction to being a year group winner is – amazing! It means the world to me!”

Mr Hyland was impressed to see such a diverse range of approaches to the theme. “They ranged from the natural to the historical to the contemporary. The competition was particularly noteworthy for its technical skill in form and structure, and for the vividness of the imagery.”

The full range of poems can be seen in The Arabella, but two of the winning poems are reproduced below, with some explanatory notes from the authors:

Into a Butterfly
By Akshaj Pawar

How does it feel, the caterpillar? Half of its legs are gone.
It used to like to walk but now –
Now its wings must fly it on.
How does it feel, the caterpillar? Its teeth and jaws are dead.
It cannot crunch on the stalks and stems,
A change has changed its head.
How does it feel, the caterpillar? It can’t hide anymore.
How can it stay safe from the ants?
The ants would kill it for sure.
What can it do in this brave new world without teeth or stealth or legs?
It will drink, it will flee, it will fly.
It will play, it will laugh, it will cry.
In a brave new world, we cannot not know if it will survive.
But the once-caterpillar, it will try.
We all must try.

“This triumph is a great personal victory,” said Akshaj. “I’m honestly mainly glad people like it. While making it, I struggled with rhythm, although I suppose I managed to sort it out in the end. I wanted to make the change in the poem seem striking, and I realised the most striking change possible is being given an entirely different body. Hence the use of a caterpillar’s metamorphosis as a metaphor for a changing world. I realised that the caterpillar’s ability to so easily transition from one form to another and keep going was quite poetic. If you were to take a lesson from Into a Butterfly, it should probably be: don’t let change daunt you, and keep on moving forward.”

Brave New World
By Ethan Solanki

The champions of yore stood arrayed on the field,
And their arrows flew true but were blocked by the shields
And their foes would roar out and then level their spears
And those heroes together laid siege to their fears.
For the sound of the drums was the beat in their chests,
And after the clash each would count themselves blessed,
And the flames of the fallen continued to blaze
As they were embraced by Death’s cold, endless haze
For each soul lived with passion eternal and strong;
And their names in the annals of history belong,
And the deeds of these men changed the world’s warp and weft
And in a glorious state was this brave new world left.
The champions of now stand there tall but alone
As this new war is waged from the confines of home,
As tactics devolve into words on a screen
And the fears of the people are shown by their miens.
For the safety of all is being ripped apart,
As tension and peace conflict within the heart;
As love and wealth come to invisible blows,
As we see to ourselves all the danger we pose.
For whilst Death himself runs rampant on a wild spree
And the flames of the fallen are numbers to be seen,
A lone soul should simply this dark void embrace:
For only as one can we this brave new world face.

Ethan said: “From the way people were talking about the coronavirus, it was made out to be the second coming of the Black Death. So I thought it was important to consider the past and all of the things that occurred to bring us to where we are today. I drew inspiration largely from Lord Byron’s The Destruction of Sennacherib, which to date remains my favourite poem. I hope that people will take away not only the importance of the past, but also that in this time of crisis we don’t abandon one another, but remain in contact over social media, through text, or through Facetime. When I found out that I had won the competition in my year group, I was both surprised and honoured.”

The special edition of The Arabella can be read here.

Head of Library Services Surya Bowyer has been making sure that boys are aware of the wealth of resources that are available online – both for study and for leisure.

He is using the shutdown to develop the way the Library team uses technology. And, as a result, they are not only supporting the boys in the holidays and in their remote learning during term time, but also deriving benefits that will long outlast the current crisis.

“When it became clear that schools would be forced to close as a result of Covid-19, our first thought was: ‘What does a library do when its doors are locked and lights turned off?’” Mr Bowyer says.

In the first few days, a small number of boys whose parents were designated key workers used the library to continue their studies. Meanwhile, for boys at home, the Library team has shared audiobooks and e-book databases, and they are recommending a Book of the Week, which is made available to read free online. The first recommendation was Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

“We have also released a list of activities of things you can do with the book you are reading, that go beyond simply reading… for example, designing a map of the book’s locations, or designing a new book cover.”

Mr Bowyer and Library Services Assistant Corinna Illingworth have also put together their own guide to digital galleries and museums that are available to browse online. “There’s a wealth of art and history out there on the internet: it’s our job, as librarians, to publicise and share these resources throughout the QE community.

“This is a key issue with the internet more widely – there is a lot of information, so much so that it’s often difficult to get a sense of what is worth your time. This is a key job of The Queen’s Library during these increasingly digital times,” said Mr Bowyer.

A number of activities and competitions have taken place to stretch the boys and encourage them to use their imagination and be creative. These included a ‘blackout’ poetry workshop, during which boys had to black out the majority of a piece of text, leaving only a handful of words to make a poem. Head of English, Robert Hyland, launched a Brave New World poetry competition, which was followed by an art competition on the same theme.

Just before the sudden start of the shutdown, the editorial team were able to put together the second edition of the Arabella – the pupils’ own magazine, open to contributors from Years 7-13. Included in this online edition, which may be viewed here on eQE by current QE families, are poetry, prose and art.

Editor-in-chief Josh Osman, of Year 13, said: “Sadly we were unable to put out a print edition. But the Arabella has been our way of uniting the School through creativity, taking in submissions from all year groups.”

Josh also heralded the success of the blackout poetry workshop: “It allowed people who would not otherwise have ventured into poetry to try their hand at something accessible yet deceptively complex.”

King’s College undergraduate Danny Martin has had his art exhibited in Cambridge for the first time – and now some of his drawings are on display at the Japanese embassy in London after being shortlisted in a manga-drawing competition.

Danny’s work was displayed in the Art rooms at King’s, overlooking the famous chapel, in an exhibition he entitled Full House.

Danny is in his third year at Cambridge, reading Architecture.

His comic strip, Balanced World, was shortlisted and then came eighth overall in Manga Jiman 2019. Manga Jiman is a long-running annual manga-drawing competition run by the Japanese embassy. (Manga are Japanese comics, sometimes called whimsical drawings, typically, but not exclusively in monochrome).

Balanced World is on display as part of an exhibition this month at the embassy on Piccadilly opposite Green Park, following a prizegiving ceremony last week, which Danny attended.

Danny describes it as “a unique take on the creation story where two God-like characters that represent nature’s opposites work together to create a world from scratch”.

In his notes for the exhibition at Cambridge, Danny wrote: “For me, drawing is a reflective process, much like writing a diary. Unlike a diary, however, the output here is far more ambiguous, fragmented and, quite frankly, surreal.

“Impenetrable plumes of visuals erupt out of a subconscious that simply can’t make up its mind.

“The pieces sweat out characters in an attempt to hide their true meanings and ink blotches desecrate and abolish any once-legible text.

“I present to you Full House, one man’s fantasia that, like real life, has not enough facts, too many villains and a ubiquitous sense of the unknowing.

“Let curiosity be your guide.”

Danny returned to Queen Elizabeth’s School last year to judge a Year 10 architectural modelling competition run by the Art department as part of QE’s Enrichment Week.

• This story was updated on 21st February 2020 with fresh images and additional information about Balanced World. Click on the thumbnails below to view Balanced World.

Old Elizabethan and global internet celebrity Jay Shetty continues to make headlines as he pursues his quest to ‘make wisdom go viral’ – and one of his recent podcast shows he has not forgotten his QE roots.

Through his bi-weekly motivational podcast, On Purpose, which was ranked number 1 in the CNET media website’s recent list of the ten best health & fitness podcasts, Jay (OE 1999–2006) dispenses serious advice from doctors, successful business people and other guests.

Issued every Monday and Friday, the podcast is so popular that it has also become a magnet for celebrities, too: recent scoops included an interview last month with Khloé Kardashian in which she discussed her relationship with her ex-partner and father of her baby, Tristan Thompson.

Closer to home, Jay this month re-tweeted a recent episode in which he paid warm tribute to his QE Art teacher, Stephen Buckeridge, during an interview with American gym and fitness entrepreneur, Payal Kadakia.

In the course of a discussion about mentors, Jay said this about Mr Buckeridge, who is now QE’s Head of Art: “This man changed my life. First of all, I was a rebel at school. I was the worst kid from 11-18 – not grades-wise, in terms of just being a rebel, trouble-maker…I was suspended three times, asked to leave.

“Mr Buckeridge was one teacher who always stood by me, never judged me. The most important lesson he gave me was every time we did any art – whether it was collage, whether it was graphic, whether it was charcoal, fine art – whatever it was, no matter how good it looked, his question was always ‘Why did you do that?… Why did you put that colour next to that colour? Why did you put that brush stroke versus this one?’ He would always ask me ‘why, why, why, why, why?’

“…It took me years to recognise that he had coached me in always looking at the meaning and the ‘why’ – without me even knowing.”

On leaving QE, Jay went on to Cass Business School in London, from which he graduated with a first-class degree in Management Science. Then, however, his life took an unusual turn: he spent three years as a monk in India in the Hindu Vedic tradition, which accounts for his later sobriquet of the ‘urban monk’.

His career began to take off when he was spotted by Arianna Huffington and brought to New York, where he rapidly gained a following for his daily show, HuffPost Live #FollowTheReader.

Jay featured in the influential Forbes European 30 Under 30 in 2017 and his social media channels attract huge followings: some of his videos have now had over 1 billion views.

Year 10 pupil Dylan Domb’s dedication to art and to the work of one of the greatest 20th-century British artists won him a prize in an international drawing competition.

After starting a sketch in class towards the end of last term, Dylan completed it at home and duly submitted it to the Henry Moore Drawing Competition run by the Henry Moore Foundation.

The drawing, a pencil sketch of Dylan’s own Moore-inspired sculpture produced at School, took third prize in the secondary-age category of the competition. At 14 (at the time of drawing), Dylan was younger than both the category winner and the runner-up.

His untitled artwork is on display until 1st November at the Visitor Centre at the Henry Moore Studio and Gardens in the Hertfordshire hamlet of Perry Green.

Art teacher Jillian McAteer said: “Dylan is an incredibly committed student whose attention to detail and refinement of work regularly sets him apart from his peers. He is also quite independent, pursuing ambitious personal projects and extending class work.”

In Year 8, Dylan was part of the annual QE visit to the Henry Moore Foundation. In that year, his class were set the task of producing their own sculptures that ‘responded’ to Moore’s famous large, biomorphic landscape sculptures.

Dylan then based his sketch – started for a drawing exercise set towards the end of Year 9 – on the sculpture he produced.

“Not all were able to finish this before School ended for the summer, but Dylan developed the drawing independently at home. It is a stunning photorealistic drawing; he achieved a very high standard,” said Mrs McAteer.

The drawing competition, which drew almost 500 entries, was organised as part of the Henry Moore Foundation’s 2019 season celebrating the drawing practice of the artist, who died in 1986. He was a prolific and talented draughtsman, producing nearly 7,500 drawings during his career.

Entries were required to reflect themes in Moore’s art: reclining figure; mother and child; natural forms, or life drawing. They had to be submitted on paper or card, with the majority of the work being drawn, not painted.

The judging panel was led by Foundation’s Head of Collections and Exhibitions, Sebastiano Barassi.

Dylan went to the exhibition opening and took photographs of his work on the wall.