On Tuesday 24^th January, we took 19 FHS students to a very inspiring lecture at Harrow School. 

The lecture was given by Andrew Scheps, a top Recording Engineer in the popular music industry. The Speech Room at Harrow was full of students from the school and from Harrow’s many partner schools as well as the girls from FHS. 

Scheps’s early work included working as a keyboard technician for Stevie Wonder. He has worked more recently as a mix engineer and producer, winning Grammys for his work on the following albums:  

 Adele – 21 (Album of the Year) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium (Best Rock Album) 

He also played a piece on the piano by John Cage (the one where you sit in silence for 30 minutes!) and discussed his experience of being on tour with Michael Jackson.

Scheps’s talk was certainly not just a name-dropping session and proved to be interesting and fascinating.  He discussed the production work itself, explaining that his drive was always on the end musical product. Girls will have taken life lessons from his talk, especially regarding maintaining a growth mindset. Scheps’ approach to work includes having many projects on the go so that the work he does on each project can help to enhance the quality of his production skills. This approach also helps to avoid perfectionism when working on a single project. That said, he knew when he was satisfied with his production in that he was able to listen to his music without wishing to make further changes.  

Students were buzzing after the lecture and had so many questions, they didn’t want to leave! What a fantastic opportunity for FHS girls! 

Ms Murphy, Head of Music