Musicians hit the right note at the Leavers’ Concert
The Dining Hall was filled with hits from the movies at this year’s Leavers’ Concert.
Held before some pupils head off on study leave, the concert is a chance to showcase the pieces our talented musicians have been practicing over the course of the year, as well as an opportunity to say farewell to our Upper Sixth performers who will be leaving school.
First up was The Dysfunktionals, the Sixth Form Jazz Band. They got the concert off to a great start with performances of ‘One Note Samba’ by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stevie Wonder’s ‘Sir Duke’.
Up next was String Orchestra who performed ‘Czardas’ from the ballet Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Vox then raised the roof with their rendition of ‘Hail Holy Queen’, arr. Marc Shaiman, from the hit musical Sister Act. They had the audience clapping along to the upbeat tune, which put a smile on everyone’s faces. They also performed ‘City Lights’ by Steve Milloy and Norman Welch and ‘Refuge’ by Howard Goodall, which they dedicated to the Upper Sixth Leavers.
Culminating the first half of the concert, First Orchestra delivered an amazing medley from the ‘Phantom of the Opera’, arr. Calvin Custer which included the hit tunes ‘Music Of The Night’ and ‘All I Ask of You’.
After a short interval, and after enjoying some refreshments in our Edmonds Café, the audience were entertained by Wind Orchestra and their performance of ‘Fanfare For An Occasion’ by Philip Sparke and ‘Bossa de Brasil’ by Peter Kleine Schaars. They also continued with the movie theme and played an upbeat medley of tunes from ‘The Lion King’ arr. John Higgins. The younger members of our audience enjoyed hearing ‘Hakuna Matata’ and ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’.
The second of our pupil-run Jazz Bands then performed. S Club Diminished Seventh expertly delivered ‘Autumn In New York’ by Vernon Duke and ‘Seven Days’ by Police frontman, Sting.
The evening ended with the Leavers’ Ensemble taking to the stage. The Sixth Formers said farewell to the Music department in the best way they know – through the power of music. Set to Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’ the leavers performed a song they had put together about their various memories from throughout their time at school and shared a few old photos of our music team along the way!
