At the end of 2009, Paul Jarman was commissioned by our School to write a choral work for our annual Anzac Day service. The Southport School has a long heritage of boys who joined the armed services and made the ultimate sacrifice in conflicts over the last 115 years, so this work was of great significance to us.

Paul began this venture as a large collaborative project that involved many students and staff. He approached it as he always does; with deep passion, compassion, humility, endless energy and a pure joy for music making.

The result was an anthem entitled ‘Band of Brothers’ that has since become more than an Anzac Day song and has indeed been adopted by the whole School community as our School Song. The lyrics and music beautifully commemorate those that came before us and  also focuses on the hope of those who forge the future.

We were very lucky indeed to have Paul as our composer in residence during 2011 as he fired the imagination of many young musicians at TSS as a wonderful artistic mentor.

We hope Paul will be able to work with our school community again.

Robert Cooke

Director of Music

The Southport School