By Mr Keating-Roberts (Director of Music)
On Monday 20th March, we welcomed the end of term with our Easter Chamber Concert, inviting all of our students to come together and perform a variety of pieces. As always, the ambiance was set from the outset with superb lighting programmed by Drama Theatre and Events Technician, Miss Elsom.
Our award-winning Bel Canto led the evening with their beautiful renditions of Shenandoah and The Birds Lullaby before shifting the mood with a captivating performance of Fever. After a wonderful introduction to our concert from the Choir, we were graced with an abundance of magnificent solos who performed alongside some of our ensembles, including our Wind Band and String Orchestra. This year we included some of our Junior ensembles, with Junior Orchestra delivering Swedish Rhapsody before lifting spirits with the ever-popular Beatles song Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. Rosie Freear (Year 10) then took to the stage and showcased all of her hard work with an exquisite performance of The Salley Gardens before Consort Choir closed the first half of the concert, delighting our audience with It Was a Lover and His Lass and I’ve Got You Under My Skin.
With the audience accordingly refreshed, a few more solos took centre stage with the likes of Olivia Deverill (Year 7) singing Wouldn’t It Be Loverly from the classic musical My Fair Lady, before Bella Pringle (Year 7) mesmerised the audience with a stunning acoustic rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow.
Once more, our Junior School ensembles dominated the second half of the concert with Baby Bels performing Sakura before entertaining the audience with Rumba, a spritely and upbeat piece with added percussion played by the girls. Bel Canto returned to the stage alongside our Baby Bels, joining forces to deliver Here in my Heart before Eva Ng (Year 11) and Mrs Parsons performed an incredibly expressive piano duet Wedding day at Troldhaugen before we handed the stage back to our very own Junior Choir who rounded the evening off with Ilkley Moor Baht ‘At; an extremely amusing yet tragic tale which our girls performed with a refined level of confidence. The curtains closed after the Choir performed Count on Me, a wonderfully heartfelt song to end on.
