A Christmas Concert to remember
An evening of festive cheer awaited the excited audience at the 2025 Christmas Concert.
As the hall fell silent, VOX opened the evening with a stunning version of ‘Sing’ by Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber. They followed this with Rainey’s arrangement of ‘This Little Light of Mine’ before ending with a showstopping performance of ‘A Million Dreams’ from ‘The Greatest Showman’ (Benj Pasek and Justin Paul).
String Orchestra followed with a beautiful rendition of Faure’s ‘Pavane’, bringing a classical calm to the Dining Hall. They then performed music from Rameau’s opera ‘Dardanus’ which is loosely based on the figure from Greek Mythology.
Big Band raised the roof with a compilation from ‘West Side Story’, then ‘All The Things You Are’ by Hammerstein and Kern. The last song before the interval was ‘Skyfall’ from the James Bond movie of the same name.
Once guests had enjoyed refreshments and mince pies in Edmond’s Café, Concert Band kicked off the second half of the concert with Pearson’s ‘Regal March’ before moving on to ‘Basse-Danse & Mattachins’ by Warlock. Trumpet players had their time to shine during ‘Tijuana Trumpets’ by Sparke and the audience enjoyed seeing how the musicians had accessorised their instruments with festive adornments.
Chamber Choir followed with an upbeat rendition of ‘Now Is The Month Of Maying’ (Morley) before performing the sassy French song ‘Il Est Bel Et Bon’ (Passereau) which is a humorous story of two women discussing the merits of their husbands. They rounded off their set with an arrangement of ‘Feliz Navidad’ by former pupil Sam Gilliatt (OS 2014). After leaving SGS, Sam studied Music at the University of York and now works as a freelance music teacher. Sam arranged the acapella version of the popular Spanish song especially for our Chamber Choir and our pupils were thrilled to perform it.
First Orchestra brought cinema to life through their medleys of popular musicals ‘Les Miserables’ (arr. Lowden) and ‘Miss Saigon’ (arr. Custer).
As is tradition, the concert was rounded off with the annual performance of ‘Sleigh Ride’ (Anderson). Audience participation is necessary, and it was wonderful to see the audience throw themselves into the performance – following a little direction from Mr Dow (and a Christmas joke or two).
