Musical Siblings

Radford siblings, Reuben and Lilla Gillman-Wells' performance at Friday's Whole School Commencement Assembly was a highlight for this musical duo.

"It was a thrill and as soon as we got into the song, it felt amazing," says Reuben. "I think most people enjoyed it, and it fit into the occasion as well as we’d hoped. We also both felt very honoured to have the opportunity. Overall, it was a great experience and will probably be the biggest performance we do for a while yet."

Reuben, Year 10 and Lilla, Year 9, first started piano lessons when they were 10 years old. A year later they added guitar to their musical repertoire, but it would be a while before they started performing together.
Their first proper performance was at a Radford College assembly last year when they performed ‘Lovely’ by Billie Eilish. Louis Thai, Year 10, accompanied them on violin. After that they've performed in various places and settings.

We asked them a few questions about performing together as brother and sister.

Is there a different dynamic at play when you perform with a sibling rather than a fellow student?
Yes of course. The dynamic can be better and worse at times. We think that we know each other and our capabilities really well, to the point where we can immediately tell if a song is working for one another or not. Rehearsals are easier because you can just do them at home, you can also give feedback easier, and surprisingly we don’t fight all that often either.


How do you decide on what to perform? Is your taste in music very similar?
We take suggestions from everyone, and we’re always giving new things a go. Usually, we decide based on what we can do well, and what the audience would like to hear. Our music taste does overlap enough for us to pretty easily agree on genres and types of songs to perform, but we definitely both have to like and agree to do the songs in order for us to do them well.

Do either of you plan to pursue a career in music after school? Lilla definitely has ideas for the music world in her career, things like opera and musical theatre, as well as possibly voice acting and singing roles. I have less of a plan for the future, though I will always like doing gigs and am currently writing my own songs. I also enjoy musical theatre and that could be something I do later on.